A Life Changing Present
by buffy1242
Summary: At 19 years old, Ziva is given a present from her Brother and Father. It is an unusual present, it is an 8 year old girl. She is in danger, her family are dead and she needs someone to look after her. However things change 8 years later when Ziva moves to the USA and the girl recognises someone she thought was dead. Ziva/Gibbs Set 6 months into Season 3 (chapter 1&2 flashbacks)
1. Introducing Kennedy

"Mom, Ima." I watched as a little girl ran up to me. My little girl, well not so little anymore, I was still getting used to that, almost 3 years later. I wasn't her Ima by birth, she was a present from my brother and father. I know what you're thinking, giving a 19 year old girl an 8 year old child as a random present isn't something that is normally done anywhere in the world, let alone in Tel Aviv but my brother told me that her family had been killed and there were still people after her. He said that we had to keep her safe.

That was my job for the foreseeable future, to keep this little girl safe. Her name was Kennedy, at least that is what all her documents said. I knew that was not her real name the moment it came out of her mouth but if she was in as much trouble as I had been told she was then I was not going to press for answers from the obviously frightened girl in front of me.

It took Kennedy months to get used to being around me. Eventually I found out that her mother had been killed in front of her in a car accident and she wasn't entirely sure what happened to her father, but my brother had told her that he hadn't survived whatever he had been doing while her and her mother had been in the accident. From what she said I think he may have been in the military and been deployed but it was tough getting answers out of her, I didn't like making her cry for starters and she had been 8 when all this had been happening. Wasn't exactly always completely reliable information coming from an 8 year old.

"What would you like, Kennedy?" I smiled down at her.

I had been working a lot recently, it was rare that we got to spend any time together and I had decided to take a week off and just spend time with her. I was lucky that she was not being trained the same way I had been from her age.

"Mom, can we bake?" Kennedy looked up at me with her beautiful blue eyes and I knew that I just could not say no. It was something I had wanted to do so anyway; we both liked spending time together in the kitchen.

"Of course." I told her.

I watched as her smile grow and she leaned in to give me a short hug before running off muttering something about finding a particular recipe and washing her hands.

Depending on the time of year or what was going on around us the kitchen could be a place where we could totally be ourselves. It was the only time I had even gotten information out of her without her crying. Often in the kitchen it was offered up freely, something that didn't happen much elsewhere.

Sometimes our kitchen fun was just that, fun and others it was more about the conversation than the baking. I wasn't sure which today was going to be, but I was going to treasure it either way. While it was heart-breaking hearing stories about how much she missed her parents, it was wonderful that she trusted me enough to tell me stories about them.

I entered the kitchen and sat down at the counter. Kennedy did most of the baking on her own these days, she was 11 after all. A fact that she felt I needed to be reminded of at least once a day, whether I was there in person or not. She just liked the company when she baked, it was a tradition and she always told me that she felt lonely when I wasn't there to watch her.

I watched Kennedy enter with a sheet of printer paper containing a new recipe that she had been dying to try for a long time, since before my last string of jobs that had kept me away from her for far too long. I watched as she got out all the ingredients and started reading the recipe because she was a perfectionist in all things.

"Mom?" Kennedy asked me quietly. I had been waiting for this.

"Yes?" I asked quietly, softly so as not to scare off the questions or answer that she was going to provide.

"Why do you have to work so much?"

It was the question that broke my heart. No one, not even my own father understood how much it hurt to leave her all the time. I loved my job, I was good at my job, but watching helping this amazing girl grow up was a million times more fun, more rewarding and much more harrowing as my job as an international assassin.

"Because I am very good at what I do."

It was a condition of signing to be her legal guardian with my father, that she would never know what my job was official or otherwise. As far as she was concerned I was just another officer working for Mossad.

"But shouldn't that mean that you work less, not more?" I could see the sadness in her eyes. She wanted me around more, she had lost enough parents she didn't need to lose another one.

"I wish it did." I told her that truthfully and from the bottom of my heart. I loved my job, I just wish it had more child-friendly hours.

Kennedy worked in silence a little while longer following the comforting process. She had once told me it was something that she did every week with her mother, especially if her father wasn't there. It was comforting for them to spend time together, making something. It was also something that I was completely willing to let her have with her mother, but she chooses to include me in it too. I never quite figured out why, but it was not something that I was going to question.

"Mom, what's up with Uncle Ari? He hasn't been the same lately."

My brother often helped the nanny out with her while I was away. They were close, Ari being her rescuer and everything so of course she instantly knew when something was wrong with him. She was sometimes better at reading Ari than I am. That is a very disturbing thought.

"I don't know the specific details but I know that your grandfather has entrusted him with a very specific long term job. He is trying to prepare for it."

Kennedy smiled at me. She knew it was a half answer, she knew that I would never tell her the details but she was happy to let me know that she knew. It was a game we played, had played whenever she asked me about work for as long as I had had her.

"Mom, tell me about your last job."

I let out a small laugh. This was another game we played, I told her about the people and some of the stuff that happened, leaving out any information that I did not want her to have and we laughed.

"I was partnered with this agent from the United States. I had never heard of her, but she is on a career fast track to lead an agency so she had to round out her international work with me in Cairo. Her name is Jenny. She spent half the time showing me exactly how little she knows about working an international job and the other half complaining about how she just left the perfect man, who was also her partner in Paris before he was too broken for her."

I watched Kennedy smile and laugh. She knew that I liked to work with people who knew exactly what they were doing, even if I was in charge.

"What happened with the guy?" She asked me. It was a story to her, something that for all she knew was made-up. That was her favourite type of story, something that I knew was real but she had no definitive proof. It worked well for us.

"I am not 100% sure, she said that he was distant but that everything else in the relationship was perfect. She said that she just wanted him to open up fully, but as soon as she asked him questions he would clamp down so fast it was like she'd get whiplash. She wanted him to want her like she wanted him I think. Once our job went downhill she kind of forgot about talking about him and focused of her inability to deal with our job."

Kennedy laughed at me again.

"What else has happened recently?" she asked me while mixing the last of the mixture together and preparing it for the oven.

"Well, I met this guy in Doha. We spent a couple of days together, a lot older than me but very good looking. He's been spending a lot of time there and I hadn't really seen the city much in forever so he showed me around. It was nice, pleasant."

Kennedy immediately jumped on this line of conversation.

"Do I get to meet him?" She asked.

"He was American." It was the standard answer.

Kennedy hardly ever got to meet new people, especially if they were Americans. She was being hunted by an international drug cartel, knowing our luck the first American whom I introduced to her would be a member of said cartel, or someone who knew her from before. Either way left too many questions that I didn't want to answer, we both knew that she had family out there somewhere but it was safer for her to be with me.

Kennedy gave me a tight smile. "Will you see him again?"

"I doubt it." I told her. "We both had fun, I could tell that much when we said goodbye but he is heading back to America and I have you to think about. There are many complications."

"I'm sorry Mom." Kennedy told me. I hated it when she thought this was all her fault.

"You are never to be sorry about being a part of my life. If I hadn't of wanted you I never had to sign those papers. You are mine and will be forever. You got me?"

Kennedy nodded as she put the baking in the oven and started cleaning up and putting things away.

"Mom?" She asked softly.

"Yes sweetie?"

"Kelly." She told me while still concentrating hard on the dishes she was cleaning.

"What?" I asked, wondering what she was talking about.

"My name, my real name. The one my parents gave me. It's Kelly."

I smiled, then grimaced. It took a lot for her to tell me that. It was something that she had always felt safer not telling me, not because she didn't trust me. It was that at even such a young age she understood the term 'plausible deniability'.

I walked over to her and put my hand on her shoulder, turning her to face me. I stuck my hand out.

"Hi Kelly, I'm Ziva."

She laughed, then let me sweep her up into a great big hug.

"You know," I told her. "You will always be Kennedy to me, whether that is your real name or not."

"Thanks Mom."


	2. Aftermath of Ari

**A/N: So I wasn't planning on updating this again for a little while, I wanted to write a few more chapters out and also I wanted to see how this was read and if it was liked but I woke up this morning to a whole heap of followers and favourites on this story so I thought that in celebration of this story reaching double digit follows that I would give you the second flashback chapter. (Well I'm calling it flashback because it isn't set where most of the story is going to take place.)  
I will probably only be updating this about once a week. Currently I have up to chapter 5 written, so enjoy the story... :) **

**Five Years Later:**

I close the door quietly behind me but it's no use. I hear footsteps running towards me as soon as the door clicks shut. I brace myself.

"MOM!" Kennedy shouts at me, halfway down the stairs. "Are you alright, you're alright, right?"

Kennedy launches herself at me as soon as she can, wrapping her arms around my waist and putting her head on my shoulder. I notice instantly that she has been crying, and I notice quickly that she starts crying as soon I hug her back. I put my bag down on the floor, not caring that it is in the way and lead her over to the couch where she sits in my lap and continues to cry on my shoulder.

She is much too big at 16 to be sitting on my lap but right now it is something that we both need. Just to know that the other is there.

"Mom?" Kennedy asks me quietly after she has finally finished crying, at least for the time being.

"I'm right here. I'm alright physically. I promise." It was something from when we first met, I never made a promise that I couldn't keep. Ever.

"Mom, what happened?"

It was a tough question to answer. I knew she knew a lot more about Mossad than she did when she was 11 and I didn't like lying to her ever, but I didn't know if I could tell her the truth.

"Mom," she whispered to me when she saw the indecisive look on my face. "When Grandpa came to tell me what happened to Uncle Ari he was in shock. Nothing shocks Grandpa. Please tell me what happened?"

I knew that I had to tell her the truth.

"Do you remember when you were 11. The day you told me what your real name was?"

When she nodded I continued.

"Remember how you asked me about what was wrong with Uncle Ari?"

Kennedy nodded again.

"Well his long term mission, he was undercover. I'm not going to tell you for what exactly, it's not something you ever need to know but let me put it this way. He started believing in his undercover colleagues more than he believed in Mossad. It didn't help that the way your Grandfather was acting was pushing him more towards their direction. There is this man in Washington DC. I don't know when Ari first came across him, but they have been butting shoulders for a couple of years now."

"Butting heads Mom." Kennedy whispered quietly to me. I smiled back at her.

"This man is a special Agent in charge of a special team. Ari shot one of the team members with a sniper rifle. Killed her instantly. This man was obviously out for blood after that, and any hope that I had of convincing him that Ari was a good person was gone. I however still believed in him, right up until he gave this Agent a 'goodbye' speech while pointing his own gun at his head. I shot Ari."

I start crying then and Kennedy just sits there patiently on my lap, her head on my shoulder, her arms around me holding me until I let out the pain of shooting my own brother.

"The Agent told everyone he shot Ari." I pick up the story when I can talk again, through my tears. "He did for me as a thank you, for trusting him."

Kennedy and I sit there quietly, just happy to be in each other's company.

"Why don't you hate me?" I ask her quietly after a while.

"Why would I hate you?" She asks me perplexed.

"Because I shot your Uncle, the man who rescued you, saved you from what was happening in America. The man you worshiped."

"I don't hate you because I trust you did the right thing. If you hadn't shot Uncle Ari would he have killed that Agent? Would he have killed people afterwards?"

I nodded.

"That is why I don't hate you. I am disappointed in Ari in this situation. He was a good man, he rescued me. You are my mother. I love you."

I started crying then, I did not stop until both Kennedy and I had cried ourselves to sleep on that couch.

I woke up sometime later. I wasn't sure how long I had been sleeping on the couch with Kennedy but I was happy to just sit there with her. It was peaceful and comforting to have her here with me.

I noticed Kennedy waking up slowly, when she opened her eyes and looked at me I smiled at her.

"Hey sleepyhead." I murmured to her softly.

"Hi." She mumbled between yawns.

"I have something else I need to talk to you about." I told her, I figured now was the best time I was going to find.

Kennedy looked at me.

"How bad, because I don't think I can take completely serious again right now."

"Not bad. I need to know what you think about something, you can have a couple days to think about it if you want but it is something that I need to know what you think about."

Kenned seemed to consider what I was saying.

"Okay, hit me."

I sighed. "Well, remember Jenny? My old partner?"

Kennedy nodded.

"Well, she was the head of the agency that Ari targeted. She offered me a job over there in Washington DC. I know I'm not supposed to take you to America, let alone DC but I want this job, I need this job, I need to get away from Massad for the time being. So, what do you think about moving to America for a couple of years?"

I watched Kennedy's face light up a million times brighter than I had seen in years.

"Are you serious? Of course I want to go."

I smiled.

"I knew you were going to say that. It'll be a week or 2 to sort things out but I'll let you know as soon I do okay."

Kennedy smiled and nodded, then she looked at me.

"I can't contact any of my old friends can I?" She asked me, I don't know if there was hope or satisfaction in her voice.

"No, sweetie I'm sorry. You can't. Anyone who thinks they know you, you have to make sure they think they're wrong. Otherwise you will have to stay here with your Grandfather. I'm not doing this if you aren't totally safe."

Kennedy smiled, that forced smile that always made my heart constrict. "I love you Mom."

I kissed her forehead. "I love you too, baby."

"Oh Kennedy," I called out to her as she got up to go sleep in her own bed.

"Yeah Mom?"

"Remember that man I told you about that I met in Doha?"

Kennedy nodded, slightly confused. That was a long time ago to her.

"Well, not only is he the guy that Jenny was talking about when we were in Cairo," Kennedy laughed at that. "But he is also my new boss, when I get to America that is."

Kennedy laughed. "The Universe hates you." She told me in between laughs, as she walked to her room.

"Believe me, I know." I murmured to myself as I got up to get ready for bed myself.


	3. They Meet Again

**A/N:** _Italics_ **are for when someone is speaking a language other than English. Unless otherwise specified it will be Hebrew.**

**I want to thank all my lovely readers for the OVERWHELMINGLY positive reaction to this story. You are all very amazing, and just because of that I am going to update. I am going to have to start updating on more of a schedule otherwise I am going to run out of chapters VERY quickly, but I thought that it might be worth it at the moment. I hope you enjoy the new chapter.**

**6 Months Later**

The phone was ringing in my ear. I had been calling the same number every 5 minutes for the last hour. It was starting to be noticed by Tony, but I was too stressed to care.

"Hello."

_"Finally, Kennedy. Where on earth have you been? You know you are supposed to call me the second you finish."_

_"Sorry Mom, I was talking to a friend. I lost track of time."_ Kennedy told me. I knew she was sorry, from the side of her voice.

_"Kennedy, remember what I told you when we moved here. We have to keep to that agreement, or else I won't be able to keep you here. You will be back in Tel Aviv before I even realise what's happening. You have to stick to the rules."_

_"I know Mom. I'm sorry."_ Kennedy sounded really down.

_"I know you are. I just need to make sure you realise exactly what is going on here."_

_"I love you Mom, and I love being back here too much to risk it by breaking the rules. I won't do it again."_

_"That's good sweetie."_ I sigh. Tony is paying way to much attention to the conversation for my liking. _"Why don't you bring dinner to me at work tonight, you can eat with us. This conversation has already received unwanted attention."_

_"Tony?"_ Kennedy asks me laughing.

_"I tell you too many stories about work." _I laugh at her. "Pizza for the boys, salads for us, Abby and Jenny and Coffee for the boss, plus whatever you feel like buying him for dinner. He eats anything."

I smirked as Gibbs threw an eraser at me. As he and Jenny were the only 2 who knew who Kennedy was, he wasn't too mad. I only said it in English so he would understand.

"Of course Mom. I love you."

"I love you too, Baby." I told her and then hung up.

"Eats anything Ziver?" Gibbs asked me smirking.

"It's true."

Gibbs went back to work and Tony decided that now was a good time to question me.

"Boyfriend, Zee-Vah?"

I sighed. "For starters Tony, I was talking to a girl."

I didn't even get to continue as Tony was talking before I could start again

"Girlfriend Ziva?" I swear Tony's eye's just lit up like a million times lighter than I had ever seen before.

"I do not understand the male fascination with 2 girls being together, but no, Kennedy is not my girlfriend. Kennedy is my daughter."

"Really?" I saw Tony's draw drop. "You must have been pretty young when she was born because you were talking to her directly and you trusted her. How old is she?"

I sighed. "16."

Tony and McGee's mouths both dropped open. I sighed and took pity on them.

"I did not give birth to her, I was 19 when I legally adopted her. I was informed at the time that she is basically in the Mossad equivalent of Witness Protection, yes?"

They all nodded at me. McGee went back to whatever he was doing and Tony stopped questioning me after that.

* * *

About 2 hours later I watched Kennedy walk into the bullpen. Gibbs had gone off to talk to Jenny about the current case and bring her down to eat with us.

"Mom." Kennedy said to me getting my attention as she set down food on my desk. "I'm sorry about earlier."

I smiled at her. "I'm sorry too. Now, do you want to meet everyone?"

Kennedy nodded and smiled at me.

"Tony." I tried to get Tony's attention away from the game he was playing on his computer.

"What Ziva?" He asked not even looking up.

"You know, I expect this from McGee, but not you Tony. Tony!"

"What Zee-Vah?" Tony finally looked up from his computer to see Kennedy standing next to my desk. "Oh. You must be Ziva's daughter?"

"I'm Kennedy." She told him politely.

Then I motioned over to McGee.

"This is Tim McGee." I told her.

"Hi." She waved at him.

I noticed Abby walking into the bullpen.

"And this is Abby. Abby, this is my daughter Kennedy."

"Hi. It's so nice too meet you." Abby hugged Kennedy. I should have warned Kennedy that Abby was a hugger and Abby that Kennedy was not, but for once Kennedy didn't make a big deal about it.

Tony was already going through the food on my desk looking for his dinner. I had noticed when Kennedy walked in that she had gotten pizzas for all the boys including Gibbs and salads for all of us girls. Tony passed one to McGee and placed one on Gibbs' desk before going over to his desk and opening up his dinner.

"You know Tony," I started speaking to him. "It is polite to say thank you when some brings you food."

"Thank you." Tony mumbled towards Kennedy, his mouth full of pizza.

I sighed but Abby and Kennedy smiled.

"So Kennedy," Abby started talking to Kennedy. "Your Mom never mentioned you until today, how come?"

Kennedy and I sighed in unison.

"Okay. That's creepy." Tony told us noticing what we had just done.

I shook my head at Tony.

"It is safer for Kennedy here in America if the few people know about her existence the better." I tell Abby.

She seemed to accept that answer thankfully and walked over to my desk to retrieve her dinner. That is when I noticed Jenny and Gibbs' walk down the stairs. Jenny rounded on the bullpen and Kennedy spotted her immediately.

"Aunt Jen!" Kennedy hugged her the instant she saw her. Jenny and Kennedy had always gotten along well.

"She still needs to breathe Kenn." I tell her.

"Funny, Mom." She tells me as she releases Jenny from the hug and passes her her dinner.

"Kennedy, this is my boss." I tell her as Gibbs becomes visible as Jenny moves.

"Special Agent…" I don't get to finish my sentence.

"Leroy Jethro Gibbs." Kennedy finishes for me.

Gibbs laughs good naturedly. "Wow, Ziva must talk about us a lot home then."

I paused to think about that, while I notice that Kennedy is looking at him trying to figure something out.

"Actually I don't think I have ever told her your name. Tony, McGee, Abby, Ducky, Jenny yes. You, never."

"Oh." Gibbs says rather confused and a little embarrassed at being looked over like a show pony by my daughter.

"Kennedy? How did you know his name?"

Kennedy was still looking at him, but when I said her name she seemed to snap out of it slightly.

"They told me you were dead." Kennedy murmurs quietly, but it is loud enough that we can all hear it.

"Who told you he was dead, Kennedy?" I ask a little concerned.

"Uncle and Grandpa." She was talking to me, but she hadn't taken her eyes off Gibbs.

"But hunny, they only ever told you that your… Oh." I suddenly cut off, understanding what was going on.

I was suddenly looking at Gibbs in much the same manner that Kennedy was.

"Are you sure, Kennedy?" I ask, just needing a final conformation.

"They said he was dead."

I suddenly became aware of everyone looking at us. Jenny looked like she had put a few pieces together, but she didn't have the whole puzzle. Everyone else was completely confused.

I reached over and grabbed her hand.

"What is going on?" Gibbs asked us.

I just looked at him. I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it earlier. They had the same mannerism's, and their eyes were practically a copy of the others.

"I should have seen it earlier." I muttered. "I can't believe they told her you were dead."

"Ziver? Kennedy? What is going on."

I squeezed Kennedy's hand. Letting her know that I was okay with however she wanted to handle this situation.

"My name is not Kennedy." Kennedy tells him. "I was 8 when Mom adopted me, and before that I watched my mother Shannon die in a car accident and my name was Kelly."

I watched Gibbs go very pale, and then faint.

I looked down at him while Tony, McGee, Abby and Jenny all gasp.

"Well that went better than I thought it would." I said out loud. "Jenny? Call Ducky would you?"

"Sure…" Jenny grabbed Gibbs' phone.

This was going to be an interesting evening.


	4. I Thought You Were Dead

"What on earth is going on here?" Ducky asked when he walked into the bullpen after Jenny had called him.

Kennedy and I were just standing where we were when Gibbs had fainted, completely unable to move. I was getting ready to move when Tony answered for me.

"Ziva's daughter spotted Gibbs when he came down with the director; she kept saying something about how they told her he was dead. Then Ziva said that they only told her that her and then she realised something leaving us with an uncompleted sentence. Then Ziva started mumbling something about she should have seen it, and then Kennedy told Gibbs that she was 8 when Ziva adopted her and before she was adopted her Mom died in a car accident, her Mom's name was Shannon and her name was Kelly. After that revelation… well that's when this happened." Tony finished gesturing to Gibbs still lying on the floor.

"Oh." Ducky breathed out.

Ducky stood there looking at Gibbs like Kennedy and I were, then he turned to us.

"If you want me to look at him, make sure he is okay and wake him up then I am going to have to get past you." Ducky tells me.

I nod at Ducky, move to just behind Kennedy and slowly pull her back just enough to give Ducky room to do what he needs to do but close enough that Kennedy and I still have a full view of him and everything that is going on around us.

Kennedy and I watched as Ducky checked Gibbs over and then he started to wake up.

"Duck?" Gibbs asked, still confused. "Why are you standing over me, and why am I on the floor?"

"Well, Jethro." Ducky told him. "You fainted."

Gibbs started to stand up and then he just looked at Ducky.

"I don't faint Ducky." The he looked around him and noticed Kennedy and I. "Never mind." He muttered, more to himself than to Ducky.

When Gibbs saw Kennedy and I he decided that it was easier to say sitting then getting up. From the way he went pale I think that maybe he was getting a little dizzy again.

"You can't be Kelly." Gibbs told Kennedy. "Kelly's dead." I don't know who he was trying to convince more, Kennedy or himself.

Gibbs and Kennedy were staring at each other.

"Yeah well," Kennedy snapped at Gibbs. I don't think she liked being told she was dead. "Last I heard you were dead too."

"Kenn." I whispered softly.

I just wanted to remind her that he wasn't taking this any better than she was.

"What exactly is your role in this, Ziva? Did you show her that file you have on me, tell her what was in it?" Gibbs snapped at me as soon as I said anything.

"I never told anyone what was in that file." I snapped right back. "The only people who even knew that file existed were you, me and Ari. As for what I have ever told Kennedy about you, she only knows that you are the guy from Doha, that you are my boss and the stories that Jenny tells her. I don't think we have ever even mentioned your name."

Gibbs head snaps up at that.

"You told her about Doha?" he asks incredulously.

"Of course. I always tell her work stories that don't involve my actual occupation, and even if I didn't I would had to explain why I was in the hospital."

Gibbs looks confused.

"Why would I be an explanation to why you were in the hospital?" His voice has lost its edge, but he is still confused and doesn't understand what is going on.

"Because most children call an ambulance when their parents faint and start bleeding a lot." I didn't want to tell him, but I knew that I was going to have to.

Gibbs looked at me again. He obviously wasn't getting the point.

"I was pregnant. I ended up losing the baby." I explained to him, tears starting to fall down my face. This wasn't a topic that I ever talked about, even with Kennedy.

"Oh." Gibbs breathed.

We were just staring at each other, Gibbs Kennedy and I when Jenny decided that she finally had enough of the puzzle to talk.

"Gibbs is the guy from Doha?" Jenny asked me. "When we were in Cairo and complaining about the most recent men in our lives, we were talking about the same man?"

"I told you at the time Jenn, the universe hates me." I laughed at her.

I noticed Gibbs was still staring at Kennedy. He turned his head in a certain way, and then posed a challenge to her.

"Prove it. If you are Kelly, prove it. Tell me something only Kelly would know."

Kennedy looked up at him, I could see the tears in her eyes.

"Until I was four you used to sing me sleep. I don't remember the name of the song, but when I went to live in Tel Aviv it was the thing that would stop the nightmares. Mom still sings it too me occasionally, but it isn't the same in her voice. I had an old raggedy teddy bear that you bought me the day I was born. Until I went to school that thing would come everywhere with me, and after I went to school I had to make sure it was in a certain place. I always used to leave it on your pillow during the day because I wanted him to watch everything that went on in your room. Every time there was a thunderstorm I would run into yours and Mom's bed, this usually resulted in you sleeping in my bed. Do you need me to continue?"

Gibbs looked like he had been slapped. I chanced a look behind us and Tony, McGee, Jenny and Ducky were all looking on, I could see how confused they were about what was going on.

"Kelly?" Gibbs breathed softly at her.

"Yeah, Daddy. It's me." Kennedy smiled at him, it was a forced smile. She still had tears in her eyes.

I still had my hand on her shoulder, I pushed her towards Gibbs. She needed a hug from her Dad. They were both sitting on the floor in seconds with Kennedy sitting in his lap and her arms around him. They were both crying. I had tears in my eyes as well.

After a little while, I saw Gibbs look up over Kennedy's head. "We need to talk." He mouthed to me. I nodded, letting him know I would wait until everything was over.


	5. The True Colours of Eli David

I stood there watching Kennedy and Gibbs crying into each other, and I realised that this was information that I should have been told when I adopted her.

I snatched my cell phone up off my desk and muttered something about making a phone call and moved away so that they wouldn't be able to hear me completely clearly.

"_Hello Father." _I said when my father picked up.

"_Ziva, how can I help you today."_

"_You can tell me exactly why you told Kennedy that her father was dead when he is very much alive and has been for a while."_

"_I don't know where you are getting your information, but I can assure you that it was checked out very thoroughly and we were never able to find record of him living."_

"_Then why am I currently looking at him and Kennedy hug?"_

"_WHAT?" _Obviously my father was not expecting this.

"_Exactly what I just said. You know I don't talk to Kennedy about my work so when she knew the name of someone whom I never told her about, we all put the pieces together."_

"_Ziva, that is not possible."_

"_I would bet a lot of money on a DNA test saying the opposite of that. They even look the same, they have the same mannerism's. They have the same eyes."_

"_Ziva, it is no longer safe for Kennedy in America. You need to send her back to Israel. Her identity has been compromised."_

"_I don't think he is going to kill her, especially since he THOUGHT SHE WAS DEAD. How could YOU let her THINK that?" _I was getting rather angry at my father.

"_Ziva, her father is dead."_

"_HE IS NOT DEAD." _I heard Kennedy laughing, I knew that she understood what was going on. I could also hear her telling Gibbs what I was saying. _"She is going to get a DNA test, and WHEN it comes back positive I will do EVERYTHING in my power to make sure that she has a relationship with her father."_

"_But she is YOUR DAUGHTER, and HER FATHER IS DEAD." _

My father and I were full on yelling at each other, and I was not bothering to try and hide it from anyone anymore.

"_I also only agreed to raise her because her parents were dead. She deserved to have her own parents, that loved her and wanted her more than anything. She could have had a better childhood with her father, she could have lived in the country she grew up in, she could have had friends and a parent who didn't leave every other week for work. She could have had the perfect childhood"_

Kennedy got up from her father and ran over to me.

"I love you Mom, and I loved my childhood. I would have liked to be with my father, but this isn't your fault." Kennedy whispered to me, so that my father couldn't hear her.

I leaned down and whispered in her ear while holding the phone away from my mouth.

"I love you too baby. I just wanted you to have your father." I kissed her forehead, and then told her to go spend some time with her father.

"_She had the best childhood with you, Ziva." My father told me._

"_She had a substitute childhood with me, she could have had her real parent. Are you that twisted that you would take a child away from their family just so I could have had a present?"_

"_She was in the best place for her. Now I want to talk to my Grandaughter."_

"_Well," _I drawled out. This was going to be fun. _"I will give her the phone but considering she has heard most of this conversation, I doubt she will talk to you."_

I walked over to Gibbs and Kennedy and put my hand out with the phone.

"He would like to talk to you." I deadpanned to her. Making it very clear what my opinion of that idea was.

Kennedy however had better ideas. She got this evil glint in her eyes and I was suddenly very glad that I wasn't on the receiving end of that glare. That was the Gibbs glare. Kennedy plucked the phone out of my phone and greeted my father politely.

Gibbs came over and put his hand on my shoulder.

"What was that about?" He asked.

"Wanted to find out why no one ever told us that you were still alive. It's been 8 years, surely we should have been able to figure out all the answers. I know she used to talk to my father and Ari about what was happening with all of this about every six months. Now I understand it a little better."

"How did she come to live with you, Ziva?" He asked me softly.

"Ari came home one day when I was 19 with her. Said that she had been in an accident in America and had a Mexican drug cartel after her and wasn't safe. I don't know if my father had any involvement in this, because he seemed genuinely surprised when I told him that her father was alive."

Gibbs just stood there looking at me. It was silent everywhere except for Kennedy shouting at her grandfather. I smiled to myself and then turned to face her.

"Kenn, you shouldn't call him names. Shout at him all you want, but name calling is never a good idea. You know that."

She turned around and poked her tongue out at me. She knew I was just doing it rub it in everyone face that I understood what she was saying.

I turned back towards Gibbs.

"Why didn't you ever tell me about the baby?"

I looked down at the floor.

"I only found out about it about 2 weeks before I lost it. I wasn't even sure about what I was going to do about it all. I hadn't told anyone but Kennedy about it. She was thrilled by the way. The mystery guy I had been… I believe the word is mooning? Over since I had gotten back from Doha had provided her with a little brother or sister. I woke up one morning to a lot of blood on the bed, I was a little scared at that but I thought that I would just clean everything up and go and see a doctor. I stood up, took two steps and passed out. Kennedy heard me fall and came to see what was wrong, she called the ambulance and I was in hospital for three days for reasons I'm still not 100% sure about. Something about consciousness becoming an issue, as in I wasn't."

I looked up at Gibbs and felt the sudden need to inform him of some crucial information.

"When I was talking to my father earlier he basically implied that he was going to do everything to get her back to Israel. I think you need to do a DNA test and we should talk custody because I get the feeling he isn't going to give up on this."

"Abby can do that, can't you Abs?" Gibbs asks Abby, as it has become painfully obvious that everyone is listening on everything we are talking about.

"Of course Gibbs." Abby tells him.

"What happens after the DNA test?" He asks me.

"She's 16 Gibbs. As far as I'm concerned that is her choice. I know she doesn't want to go back to Tel Aviv, and I would bet a lot of money that she wants to get to know you again and spend time with you. With your and her approval, how about alternative weeks? One week with you, one with me?"

"You know Ziva…" Gibbs trailed off, and I thought he was going to take her away and never let me see her again. "… I don't think she will like that, being away from you for a whole week just out of the blue."

I breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't taking her away from me.

"It was not unusual for me to be away for a week or more while I was working at Mossad you know. I tried to be there as much as I could, and if I couldn't I would try to call at least every night. I do think, however that this is a conversation that we should be having with her. How about dinner tonight, the three of us? I have many photo albums that you may like to see. Then tomorrow night, maybe we should have dinner with the team? Tell them all the details, otherwise Tony is going to be unbearable."

Gibbs laughed at me, as I watched Kennedy hang up the phone and walk over to us.

"Sounds good." She told us.


	6. The Great Wall of Chinese Food

I watched as Gibbs turned around to inform the team to keep working as I walked over to where Kennedy was yelling at my father.

_"I don't care. HE IS MY FATHER. I deserved a chance to get to know him!" _Kennedy was very angry, and her argument was going around in circles.

I wasn't going to let this get too out of hand, I reached for the phone she was pressing against her ear and grabbed it.

"Goodbye Father." I said into the phone before hanging up.

I looked to Kennedy. She had tears in her eyes.

"Why'd they let me believe he was dead?" She whispered to me quietly, just standing there watching me.

I reached out and pulled her towards me, and she responded by wrapping her arms around my waist and burying her face into my shoulder.

"What happens now?" She mumbled into my shoulder.

"Now, we are going to go for dinner with your father. You are going to get to know him again and we are going to discuss some sort of plan of attack with what this all means." I tell her.

"What about Grandpa wanting to take me back to Israel?" She asks, her voice quivering just a little letting me know exactly how scared she is that that could happen.

"I am not going to let that happen, and I doubt your father will let that happen either." I tell her firmly, telling her that I am going to fight for her and her father.

"I love you Mom." She tells me, squeezing just a little tighter for a moment before letting go.

We walk back to where everyone is standing. Then she turns to me.

"What are we going to do with the dinner that I bought for everyone?" She asks

"Tony will eat it." I tell her just loud enough for everyone to hear, and I am rewarded with a small smile from her and a laugh from almost everyone else.

I stop in front of everyone, and I figure now is a good time to tell them some information.

"Tomorrow night, dinner party at my house and I will explain all this to the best of my ability." I promise them all.

They all nod. Gibbs walks over to us and with Kennedy in between Gibbs and I we walk out of the bullpen towards the elevator.

"Where are we going for dinner?" Gibbs asks us.

"Kennedy's favourite Chinese restaurant." I tell him and Kennedy instantly smiles at me.

"The one with the real Chinese food?" she asks excitedly.

"Yes."

"Yay. I love that place." She informs her father.

"How come?" Gibbs asks her. He is keen to know all about her life, but isn't wanting to push it.

Kennedy laughs. This is one of her favourite stories.

"Mom knew I was unhappy about my 9th birthday coming up, because the only thing I wanted for my birthday was my parents so she requested a couple of weeks off which was near impossible for her but she actually managed to get it, then exactly a week before my birthday she woke me up and told me we were going on a trip. No one really knew what to do with a kid when I first got there so something I did a lot was read the magazines that Grandpa bought me from the waiting rooms at Mossad. My favourite was a travel magazine and there was this amazing picture of The Great wall of China. Mom timed the trip perfectly so that for the night before my birthday and the night of my birthday we were on the wall, she got them to do a special firework display and we stayed with this family who cooked the most amazing Chinese food. I stopped being so depressed for like 36 hours, I forgot about everything that happened. Ever since then Mom takes me to China for my birthday, we visit our friends, I get a special firework display and we eat amazing food. This place was recommended to us by our friends as the closest real Chinese food in DC, it reminds me of China."

Gibbs is quiet as she tells her story. He looks so hurt that he missed all those birthdays. As we reach his car I tell Kennedy to step inside. I want to speak to Gibbs.

"Look at me." I tell him firmly. When he looks up, I tell him something that isn't known about by anyone other than Kennedy.

"Going to China was the only thing that made her forget about her parents and her life here until she was like 12. That kid sitting in there loves you so much and has missed her parents so much it hurt to watch. You both thought the other was dead, there are many stories that she has that start like this and I suspect you have a few of your own. We will both tell you anything and everything you want to know about what you missed in her life but there is no use feeling guilty about it now, she is your daughter, she loves you and she wants to get to know you again."

Gibbs sighed and continued looking at me.

"I can't help thinking that if I had gone to meet you in Israel after Doha than all this could have happened sooner." He told me quietly.

I shook my head at him.

"I would never have introduced you to her, even if I had kept the baby. You were American and that was a big no-no on our list for years." I told him quietly.

"This is so screwed up." He told me.

I reached out and put my hand on his arm.

"The universe hates me." I told him, before walking around to go and sit in the car.

"It hates me too." He told me as we got into his car.


	7. The Talk That No One Wants To Start

"We would have gotten here sooner if I had been driving." I mutter to Kennedy and Gibbs as we walk to our table in the restaurant.

Kennedy and I are regular customers and are just waved through by the staff. We smile and greet our regular waiters and our friend who own the place when we see them.

"Forgive me for wanting to get the child I thought was dead for the last 8 years to the restaurant alive." Gibbs glared at me.

"Actually," Kennedy speaks up with a smile. "You're driving scares me. It's too controlled and safe, driving like that in Israel will get you killed. At least when Mom drives I know I will survive the car trip. Besides, she's probably the safest driver in Israel."

I laugh a little as Gibbs blanches. I don't think he was happy that Kennedy thought my driving was safe.

"Believe me Kenn," I tell her laughing lightly. "He does not usually drive that safely."

We laugh at Gibbs embarrassment of being completely called out at parental over-protectiveness. It was something that none of us were used to.

We sit down and order our usual. Gibbs asks us to just order for him as we obviously know what's good here and then we turn to face each other and know that we have to get down to the serious conversation.

We were all prepared for the conversation, except no one knew where to start. We each had things on our mind that were all going to take a long conversation and none of us wanted to be the one that went first.

I could see from Gibbs' face that he was alternating between asking why Kennedy lived with me and how that all came about, to asking about the baby that I had lost and what us sharing a kid accidently was going to do for the feelings we had both been pretending we didn't feel anymore.

Kennedy wanted the story from her Dad's point of view. I knew instantly from the way she was looking at him that she wanted to know how he never knew she was alive. She wanted answers, but she was also slightly afraid of them.

I was more worried about Kennedy being taken back to Israel by my father. I wouldn't put it against him to try something like that and I was not going to be happy if he tried it, and I suspected Gibbs wouldn't be either.

"If no one else is going to start," I started speaking slowly. The main issue on my mind was probably the shortest conversation and the easiest to start with. "I will. I think we need to speak about what my father said to you Kenn, and we need a plan of attack to make sure he doesn't follow through with his threat to take you back to Israel and Mossad."

"Can he do that?" Kennedy asked in a small voice. It was something she was not happy about either.

"NO!" Gibbs barked at her, making her flinch a little.

"Actually, that isn't entirely true." I tell him calmly and watch his anger skyrocket. "At the moment my father is her secondary guardian, he has a lot of control over stuff like this but not complete control. Knowing my father, the easiest way and most likely way he will get Kennedy back to Israel if I do not cooperate is to get rid of my parental rights over her. Hopefully he will only go the paperwork route, but I would not put it past him to assassinate me. It would be easier for him the long run. However if he did that, he would most likely go after you as well especially after the recent revelations have come to light."

"Mom." Kennedy wimpered.

"How do we get past it?" Gibbs growled.

"I can only think of one way. No matter what happens with the DNA test tomorrow it will take months to get my father off her paperwork you onto it. He has parental rights over Kennedy David. He does not however, have parental rights over Kelly Gibbs."

I watched Kennedy and Gibbs both look up at me.

"You think I need prove she is alive as Kelly?" Gibbs asks me incredulously. Of all the things I could have said I don't think he was expecting that.

"Yes."

Kennedy is looking at me.

"If I become Kelly again, you won't be my Mom anymore."

I flicked my eyes to her quickly.

"I raised you for eight years." I told her firmly. "That is the same amount of time as you had your mother. I will always be your Mom, just like your mother will always be your mother whether there is a piece of paper that agrees with that or not."

"She's right." Gibbs agreed with me. "While it may not have been how I would have planned your life, you are an amazing, bright kid and you have your Mom to thank for that. Besides she's had most of the teenage years, after that she deserves the title. I think even Shannon would have agreed with that."

Kennedy's eyes flashed up at him the second he said her mother's name. Kennedy's expression was unreadable which usually meant she was hiding something, in this case I knew was the sadness about watching her mother die in front of her, something that she had had nightmares about for years.

Gibbs eyes however held sadness, something that I had only seen in his eyes when he had asked me if I knew about his wife and daughter about an hour before I had killed Ari. This was when I realised that I would not find it easy to talk about this subject with either of them.

"Thank you, Daddy." Kennedy acknowledged what this had meant to both of them by agreeing that Kennedy was officially my daughter.

"We shall start the paperwork tomorrow." I tell them. "I think for the next little while you should be spending your free time at NCIS with us. Jenn will let you use her office when she's not busy, but otherwise you'll have to find somewhere else. You will be escorted to and from school by us and we will have to put your school on alert. I don't know how we are going to swing that, but I am sure we can find a viable excuse. Any complaints or suggestions about that plan?"

I wait for them to both tell me my plan is bad. Kennedy because it basically takes away all her freedom and independence and Gibbs because it is not secure enough, but when I look at them both I realise that they have resigned to my plan. I smile.

"Now," Gibbs drawls out as our food is placed on the table. "Can we talk about what we are going to do about this name thing?"

"What name thing?" Kennedy and I ask confused.

"The fact that I don't know which name to call you. Kennedy or Kelly?" Gibbs sighs good naturedly at our confusion. He isn't doing it to be difficult, he just wants to make Kennedy feel comfortable.

"I will continue to call you Kennedy," I tell her. "I told you that when you were 11, and I will tell you again now. Partly because it makes me feel like you are special and partly because I remember how that name was chosen and I don't want to forget that memory."

Kennedy laughs at me.

"I don't know." Kennedy sighs. "I like Dad calling me Kelly, because him calling me Kennedy would just sound weird. But I don't know if I can go back to being Kelly full time. There are too many bad memories associated with being Kelly. Dad being deployed, Mom dying, the car accident. At least when I am Kennedy I don't think about that."

I smile at Kennedy.

"You don't have to decide at the moment. It will be ages before the paperwork is even able to be filled out, let alone official. You should take your time, tell your friends at school, maybe discuss with some of your friends in Tel Aviv. Talk to Jenn, she'll tell you what to do happily."

"Aunt Jen was so much nicer before she was your boss." Kennedy tells me.

"I agree." Gibbs and I laugh.


	8. How Kelly Became Israeli

When we had finally finished our meal and the idle small talk that we had filled the silence with Gibbs decided to tackle a question that he wanted answers about.

"Kells?" He asks her softly. "How did you end up in Israel with Ziva?"

I watched Kennedy steal herself up for the conversation that was bound to follow. She hated talking about how she came to Israel, it was a topic I knew very little about because she didn't like talking about it, it was also a topic that she had been allowed to talk about so I really should have known more than I did about it.

"When we had the car accident where that agent was shot, we were sitting in the car for hours. The agent was dead straight away but Mom wasn't."

I could see Kennedy was struggling with telling this story. I had only heard it once before, and I knew that she was having real trouble getting it out.

"She told me for ages that we would be fine, that there were agents that we were required to check in with at certain intervals and that soon someone would find us. After a while she couldn't talk anymore and we were just holding hands, and then about 10 minutes before someone found us she died. The last thing she said was that she loved me and I was to tell you that she loved you too."

Kennedy had tears running down her cheeks now, but she was taking no notice of them. Gibbs was crying too but I don't think he had even noticed it. It hurt to watch them like this; these were not emotions I was used to seeing from either of them. Kennedy still got sad thinking about her parents but never like this. I was very glad we had a round table at that moment and I reached over and grabbed both of their hands. It was a small gesture but they both squeezed back.

"I was relatively unhurt from the accident, a couple of bruises and scrapes but nothing that would kill me, I just couldn't get out of the car. Then Uncle Ari found me. I don't know if it was on purpose of by accident but he asked me what had happened and I told him the story of us seeing the Marine being murdered and us being taken away and you being deployed. He took me to a safe-house that night, said that if we were being put into protective custody then someone was after us and maybe it was better to let them think I was dead. He told me that he was working for Mossad and then explained that Mossad was like the Israeli FBI, and he told me that he would find my father for me and let him know that I was alright. The next day he took my photo and told me he was get me out of the country and safe, I got a fake Israeli passport. I don't remember the last name but the first name was Sarah, it was a Hebrew name but it was also an American name. Uncle Ari thought that it would be safe to use. When we got to Tel Aviv, Mom met us at the airport and drove us home."

Kennedy laughs a little at the memory of meeting me for the first time, and I can't help but smile back.

"After everything that I had been through, the most scared I had been in those 36 hours was the half hour drive back home with Mom."

Gibbs throws me a smirk that says 'I told you your driving was hard to stomach'. I laughed at him.

"When we got home Uncle Ari gave me the guest room and told me to sleep. They didn't know for years later that I didn't sleep but actually listened to the conversation. Uncle Ari told Mom that he had found me in a totalled car and that I had an international drug cartel after me. He told her that my Mom was dead and that he was having trouble tracking my father… you, down. I spent a few days getting to know Mom, listened to the impressive arguments between her and Grandpa. Mom didn't want a kid and really resented that both Grandpa and Uncle Ari thought she was the best caregiver for me because she was a girl. Mom was really putting the pressure on them to find you, she made a point of telling them that I needed my family, she didn't think I would a permanent fixture in their lives until Uncle Ari came home one night as said that you had been in an explosion. That was when Mom agreed to keep me, and we got to know each other."

Kennedy was crying hard by the time she finished the story. I squeezed Gibbs hand and then let go and got up, not letting go of Kennedy's hand. I pulled her out of her seat and sat down on it pulling her into my lap. She curled into and just continued sobbing, I hugged her tighter just wanting her to let it all out. I looked over at Gibbs and notice he is crying too. That story was just as hard for him to hear as it was for Kennedy to tell it. I motion for him to take my seat and bring it closer to us, when he does that I keep one arm tightly wrapped around Kennedy and use my other hand to grab Gibbs' hand. In the middle of a crowded restaurant with a 16 year old sobbing my lap it is the best comfort that I can offer him at the moment.

When Kennedy's sobbing subsides slightly I lean over to Gibbs and hand him some money while telling him to pay the check and meet us in the car. I gently stand up keep one arm tightly wrapped around Kennedy and gently lead her out of the restaurant and too the car. When I get her seated in the backseat I get into the driver's seat and wait for Gibbs.

Gibbs doesn't look too pleased when he noticed that I was sitting the driver's seat of his car but I was just relieved that he was showing an emotion other than sadness. I drive a little slower than I normally would to my place, and notice that Kennedy has let the day go her and has fallen asleep in the car.

"Do you want to come up?" I whisper to Gibbs. Kennedy can sleep through a lot but I don't think she will sleep through a normal conversation at the moment, and I don't want to test my theory.

"Yes." Gibbs whispers back immediately. I think his agreement was equal parts wanting to know more and not wanting to be alone. I was suddenly very glad that Gibbs hadn't retreated to the boat in his basement because I didn't think I could be alone after this evening.

"Unlock the front door for me will you?" I ask him.

Gibbs looks at me quizzically.

"You don't want me to carry her?" He asks.

"We have a system. If you pick her up she will most probably wake up, and I don't think that will be a pleasant experience for anyone at the moment. Talking about her parents takes up almost all of her energy."

He nods at me and gets out of the car taking care to close his door quietly.

I get out and close my door normally before opening Kennedy's door and pulling her carefully out of her seat. She opens her eyes sleepily as I get her out and balance her upright.

"Mommy." She whispers as she hugs me tighter, leans her head on my shoulder and falls straight back to sleep. I close her door and pick her just like I used to do when she was 8. We haven't had to do this in a while and she is heavier than the last time this happened.

I walk up to the front door that Gibbs is holding open for me and as soon as I walk through it I motion for him to close and lock it and then I point to the couch while I take Kennedy up to her room.

It takes me about five minutes to get Kennedy changed into comfortable clothes and into bed. I kiss her forehead and head down stairs to find Gibbs sitting on my couch like I had told him too. I sit down next to him and reach out to grab his hand and then I notice him break down completely. I lie us down on the couch facing each other, while keeping my arms wrapped around him and just letting him cry everything out just like Kennedy. My hand is on his back rubbing soothing circles on it just to let him know that I am here for him. After a couple of minutes he pulls back slightly and looks at me, I smile at him wordlessly letting him know that I am here for him and then he is kissing me.

For about a second I wonder what exactly he is doing, that this is only grief and shock but it feels like it used to feel in Doha. I shake my head at myself and then give in to what I have wanted to do to him since I saw him again in the NCIS office.


	9. The Minor Details of Everyday Life

We lay on the couch in my living room making out like a couple of teenagers for a long time. I am not sure how long we were actually lying there but it felt like forever doing something that we had both been avoiding and it felt wonderful. Neither had the energy nor inclination to take it any further at the moment, we both had a lot of things to work out before we brought sex into whatever this was between us.

Eventually we ran out of air and energy and we both just lay there on the couch holding the other. It was something that we both needed. I smiled at Gibbs and placed a light kiss on his lips before I turned around on the couch so that we were spooning with Gibbs' arms around my waist and my head leaning back into the crook of his neck.

We were both still awake and both knew that it was going to be sometime before we actually calmed down enough to sleep but at the moment neither of felt like doing anything else.

We lay on the couch like that for what must have been hours, I wasn't really paying attention to a clock. Eventually I felt Gibbs calm down behind me and his breathing start to even out, and I realised that my small couch wasn't really conductive to proper rest which was something we were both going to need to get through tomorrow.

"Gibbs?" I questioned lightly trying to softly wake him up.

"Sleep Ziva." Gibbs mumbled into my neck.

"My point exactly." I told him pulling out of his embrace. "Come up to bed."

Gibbs eyes opened the second the word bed left my mouth. I grabbed his hand and pulled him up and towards the stairs to take us to the second floor.

We paused slightly outside of Kennedy's room, both of us looking in at her sleeping. Then we continued on to my room.

"You might want to stay semi respectable in what you sleep in because there is a very good chance that Kenn will come in here in the middle of the night tonight." I tell him as I see him pulling off his pants.

Gibbs pauses and looks at me.

"Why?" He asks concerned.

I sigh. This was not something that I was looking forward to sharing with Gibbs.

"She hates talking about her last days in America and her first few weeks in Tel Aviv. It is a very tough subject for her. Sometimes over the years she has been required to repeat the story at Mossad to make sure everything is up to date and accurate, and well as I said when I took her inside we have a system. It was why I drove home, if you had driven here the way you drove to the restaurant then she never would have fallen asleep. My driving puts her to sleep, been that way for years. Then I pull her out of the car like I used to do when she was 8, and she wakes up just slightly usually to make sure I am there. Then I carry her up to bed. She usually has a nightmare about 3am and comes in here."

Gibbs is looking at me.

"I can leave if you think that would be best." He tells me though we both know that he doesn't want to leave.

"No. I think having you here will be comforting to her, just don't be too surprised when she comes in. Also fair warning, it will be really hard to watch when she comes in. You saw what she was like at the restaurant and that was a fairly contained reaction."

"What do you mean?" Gibbs asks me as we each go to opposite sides of the bed and lift the covers to get in.

As we get in and meet in the middle, Gibbs lying on his back while I put my head on his should and we both snuggle into the other I try to think of an accurate way to describe Kennedy's reaction to the nightmares.

"You will probably find this quite painful to watch. I hate it, but I am also very used to it. The nightmares stopped mostly about 2 years ago, and they were a lot less frequent than the first couple of years that she was with me. A lot of the nightmares these days are of me dying in the car accident like… her mother did. Sometimes they are of either Ari or my father dying in an explosion like she was told how you died, but those don't tend to get such an intense reaction like the car accident ones. I think that might be because she actually saw what happened to her mother, but she was only told about what happened to you. When she has a nightmare she wakes up screaming. It took me almost a year to realise that it was easier for her to wake up by herself and make her way in here than it was for me to go running to her. You need to be aware, the girl can scream. I am mostly immune to her nightmare screams now, they only really wake me up enough to know that she will be in my room soon."

I stopped talking. I hated talking about Kennedy's nightmares. They were just a normal part of my life with her but they weren't normal at all. Gibbs wrapped his arms a little tighter around me, and I continued.

"When she comes in here she will just climb straight onto the bed and lie on top of me. She might go to you, will depend what the nightmare is about tonight but I would bet on it. She cries for about an hour after a nightmare, completely inconsolable and I have no idea why. By the time that is all over she will be semi awake and the only way to get her awake and calm enough to even try going back to sleep is to take a shower. I am not talking about a normal shower either; it has to be scolding hot. I am surprised that she has not gotten severely burnt from these showers over the years but she always seems fine afterwards. After that she comes and lies down in bed with me, and if we are extremely lucky she will go back to sleep but I wouldn't count on it."

I can feel the tears falling down my cheeks talking about Kennedy's nightmares. I hate them so much and wish beyond anything that I could take them away from her, but I cannot. I can only be there for her when they happen.

Gibbs pulls me even tighter against him which is something that I wouldn't have thought possible but I was all of a sudden lying almost on top of him. He leans down and kisses me on the lips just lightly.

"You are an amazing mother, and I am glad that through all of this she at least had you."

I smile at him.

"It doesn't make up for the fact that her father wasn't dead and actually would have liked to have her in his life. That's all she wanted you know? To have her parents back. For years it was the only wish she had, the only thing she asked for Christmas or her birthday. For the first couple of years we did Hanukah instead of Christmas because it was a similar time of year and she still got presents but it didn't have all the memories that Christmas did. When she was 12 she decided that she wanted Christmas again, so we added it to our festivities. Most spoiled child ever, got Hanukah and Christmas gifts."

Gibbs laughs at me.

"So is she Christian or Jewish?" He asks me, genuinely curious about what his daughters faith would be.

"I have no idea, and I don't think she does either. She likes the Jewish holidays because I do. I always tell her stories about them and one year for Hanukah I gave her a Star of David necklace like mine but she doesn't wear it, though I think it may actually be her favourite piece of jewellery she has. She speaks Hebrew because… well she grew up in a household where we spoke Hebrew mostly. She was fluent by the time she was 10."

"How many languages does she speak?" Gibbs asked tentively. I don't think it was a question he thought he would ever have to ask about his daughter.

"English obviously. You taught her Sign Language and we improved it. Then there is German, Italian, French, Chinese both Mandarin and Cantonese, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, Korean, Japanese and Swedish. Though the last 3 are only about intermediate stages."

Gibbs just looks at me.

"Seriously?" He asks.

"We like to travel." I tell him. "Tomorrow morning you should get her to bring her travel album with her to the office. She will not be in any fit state for school and it will make her smile to talk about the adventures we have had."

"And how many of those languages do you speak?" He asks me.

I knew he knew the answer to this question, he had read my file after all.

"Who do you think teaches her those languages?" I ask back smiling at him.

"Ziva?" Gibbs asks suddenly serious.

"Yes?"

"Would you have told me about the baby? If things had been different?" He asks. It was something that I could tell as soon as it left his mouth that he had wanted to talk about all night.

I stiffened in his arms immediately.

"I don't know." I tell him truthfully. "I was still trying to wrap my head around the idea of a baby at all when I had the miscarriage."

I bury my head in Gibbs shoulder and just lie there until he starts speaking again.

"I wanted to go and find you in Tel Aviv, you know." He tells me. I gape at him and he continues. "I almost did too, about a month after we left Doha. Requested the time off from NCIS and was all set to go but then a case came in that I had to be a part of. Father lost his wife and 2 daughters in a car accident. It was something that I just had to do."

I am crying now. We had been fighting our feelings for months, I knew that. But to know that he had actually wanted to come to Israel to find me was very different.

"Why didn't you come afterwards?" I ask, not too sure if I want the answer.

"It took me a while to get over that case; I would have been useless to you. A friend helped me out and well… that's where ex-wife number 2 came from. I still talk to Scott occasionally though, the father from the case. I don't know how I am going to tell him about this. We commiserate about what we are missing from our children's lives, that is our entire friendship. I don't think he will take it too well that my daughter is alive."

I kiss his shoulder.

"Everything will be fine, you'll see. Now we should sleep. While we can."


	10. Nightmares and Panic Attacks

"AHHHHHHHH!"

I registered the noise because it was a sound that I was semi used to. Gibbs however reacted exactly as I expected him too, though I wasn't particularly happy about it.

I had been lying mostly on top of him so when he suddenly sat up, looking around for a weapon and spotting many – it was my room after all – I was thrown off of him extremely ungracefully. Just as Gibbs was throwing back the covers to get out of bed I grabbed his arm and pulled him back in. He looked at me like I was crazy.

"That IS NOT a nightmare scream." He tells me while trying to pull free of my grip.

"Believe me, that is. When you hear her really scream you'll know it."

"What if she is in danger?" Gibbs asks relaxing a little, but not enough.

"Then I feel slightly sorry for whoever thought attacking her would be a good idea."

Gibbs looks at me like I am crazy, again. I sigh.

"We thought an international drug cartel was after her. We taught her how to defend herself and we probably taught her a little too well. There are 3 guns alone in her room, she knows how to use them but she doesn't really like guns. Her gun skills rival mine." I tell him. "She likes to fight the old fashioned way, with her hands. She can do more damage and be more deadly and discrete with her hands than you or I with a gun or knife. It's incredible, rather creepy and disturbing but incredible."

Gibbs looks at me in shock.

"You taught my daughter to fight?" he asks in such a neutral tone that I can't tell how he feels about it.

"I kept her out of Mossad as best I could, didn't want her to end up like me but I couldn't keep her out of everything, especially considering she good. Took all my power to keep her out of any Mossad training program these last 2 years."

Gibbs hugs me.

"Thank you for keeping her safe."

I lean up and kiss him before pulling back and positioning myself on my back on the bed.

"What are you doing?" Gibbs asks moving over towards me.

I push him back.

"We have about a minute until she comes in here." I tell him.

"Oh." Gibbs says, then he leans over and kisses me. "You are an amazing mother."

I smile at him as I hear Kennedy in the hallway.

"Showtime." I mutter as my bedroom door opens.

I watch Kennedy stand in my doorway for a second. If I didn't know she was 16 and she wasn't so tall I would think she was about 5. She was clutching the leg of a battered old teddy bear that I had bought her just after I had bought her just after I adopted her, hoping it would help keep the nightmares away. It didn't but by the time we were ready to give up on him Kennedy found him comforting. Her long hair was down and slightly frizzed up from sleep, and she had tears running down her cheeks.

I waited for her to come to me, I always waited for her. She reached up to wipe away so of the tears but they were replaced a second later. She slowly walked over to the bed and climbed on quickly, just like she had done a million times before.

She lay down beside me and put her head on my shoulder, this was my cue. I reached over and pulled her so she was lying completely on top of me. I let go of the teddy bear and moved her hands to my sides grabbing fistfuls of my shirt, while burying her head in the crook of my neck letting all the giant sobs free.

Every now and then she would hold me tighter and whisper "Mommy". I just continued to hold her and rub her back. Occasionally I would say something like "I'm here baby." Just enough to let her know I was there.

Eventually she calmed down a little and was just dozing on me instead of crying. I relaxed a little and reached out to Gibbs grabbing his hand. He opened his mouth to say something but I quickly shook my head. I doubted Kennedy even knew he was there and if she realised suddenly it was bound to end badly.

He saw my look and thankfully kept quiet.

We lay like that, Kennedy crying softly on top of me while Gibbs and I held hands for a little while.

Gibbs and I were snoozing softly when Kennedy seemed to find her way out of her crying faze of the nightmare.

"Mom?" She asked softly.

"Hi Baby." I told her. "Feeling better?"

She nodded into my shoulder.

"You ready for a shower?" I ask.

Years of nightmares has perfected a routine that we both know will mean that she will be functional the next day.

"In a minute." Kennedy tells me just content to lay there for a few minutes.

"I have something to show you."

Kennedy looks at me. This isn't part of our routine.

"What?" She asks sceptically.

I tilt my head towards Gibbs lying next to me. When she sees him she smiles. She doesn't let go of me, but usually it takes me hours to get her to smile again so progress is good.

"Hi Daddy." She tells him, laying her head back down on my chest but facing towards Gibbs.

"You feeling better, Kells?"

My eyes open wide in terror. Of all the things I could have forgotten to tell Gibbs I forgot that? STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!

Kennedy looks at me with terror in her eyes and goes completely limp in my arms.

"SHIT!" I mutter fast while rolling Kennedy off me gently and quickly.

"Gibbs, you have to help me." I tell him in my calmest Mossad façade. He knew immediately something was wrong.

"What's wrong? What happened?" Gibbs asks. I can hear the panic setting in his voice and actions.

"I don't have time to explain, but I need you to go downstairs and go under my kitchen sink. There will be 2 pink buckets fill with stuff. I need you to fill one with warm water, and bring the other bucket and the stuff in it up here."

I am not focusing on Gibbs, but on Kennedy but when I don't hear him move I look at him.

"NOW!" I shout at him. I don't have time for this.

Gibbs scurries – yes, he actually scurried – to follow my instructions.

While Gibbs is gone I rub Kennedy's back gently massaging the limp muscles and trying to get her to react to something.

After a few minutes Gibbs comes back up with the stuff I asked for. I motion for him to put the water bucket on the floor and hand me the other bucket. I tip everyone it contains out on the bed next to Kennedy and put the bucket on the bedside table, I am going to need that soon.

"Ziva?" Gibbs asks concerned.

"I can't believe I forgot to tell you about this!" I tell Gibbs more angry at myself than anyone else.

"What is this?" Gibbs asks me. He is very scared. "What is going on? Should we take her to a hospital?"

I almost laugh at the hospital question.

"A hospital will only make this worse. This is your daughters version of a panic attack. She had a lot of triggers, and you learn to avoid them during certain times and using her name, either name after a nightmare is one of them."

Gibbs looks at me.

"What is happening to her?" he asks quietly.

"Right now she is reliving something, probably related to the nightmare and you calling her Kells. In about 5 minutes, maybe less she will wake up in a similar way to the nightmare, only instead of crying for a long time, she won't be able to breathe. It will take me a couple of minutes to talk her out of that, and then she will calm down a little. After that she will promptly throw up, most probably all over me but if I'm lucky she might get some in the bucket."

Gibbs was glancing back and forth between Kennedy and I.

"Why is this happening? Why does she have these panic attacks?" He asked me.

I sighed audibly.

"Honestly, I don't know. The nightmares we expected, especially when Ari told the story of how he rescued her but no one really knows where the panic attacks come from especially since these are very unusual panic attacks. It's almost like her nightmares are merging with a panic attack and this is the outcome. The first time this happened you should have seen us. It was one of her first nights with us, she woke up screaming. She was disrupting a very important meeting Ari and I were having with our father trying to figure out what to do with her. They wanted me to take her, and I was against it. I didn't want her to turn out like me. When she screamed we all ran to her room which only really upset her more, but we didn't know that at the time. She only really liked Ari at that time as well so he sat down next her to try and comfort her, and well… let's just say he was walking funny for a week after that." I smirked at Gibbs as he smirked back at me. "You taught her well."

We laughed a little and looked down at Kennedy. All hell was going to break loose for us soon and I could only continue my little story to try and prepare Gibbs for it.

"We believe that her nightmares weren't that bad until we told her you were dead too. She hadn't said anything about them so we really didn't know what to do. After what happened with Ari, well you can guess my father wasn't too keen to try in the first place, but that just cemented his plan so all was left up to me. By this time she was crying, so I did the only thing I could think of. I gave her a hug. From her reaction I would guess this is what her mother used to do with her because as soon as I did it she hugged me straight back and whispered 'Mommy'. I honestly don't know who was more shocked by that me, her when she woke up and realised what she said, Ari or my father. Eventually she stopped crying, and she was just shocked that we were all there. If I knew what I knew now, I would have seen the warning signs the prelude one of her panic attacks but I didn't. I tried to calm her down, anything to not make her cry again and I called her Kennedy. Big mistake. When we finally came out the other end of the panic attack I asked her what caused her to react like that and she said that when I said her name it made her remember her nightmare in such a way that it was like she was reliving it, but she couldn't wake up."

I shook my head slowly as Gibbs was looking more and more horrified about what had been going on with his daughter. I continued slowly, watching Kennedy even closer to make sure I was ready when she woke up.

"I tried calling her Kelly years later when I knew her real name. I asked her one night when we had had a week of particularly strong nightmares if she would let me try something new. We both knew that it could be good or bad but we always try something once, because it is unlikely to kill her. It obviously didn't work."

Gibbs sighed.

"I take it you have seen many doctors about this?"

I nod sadly.

"I started with sleep specialist thinking that it was something to do with the nightmares. I have never been too concerned about the nightmares themselves, in fact I would be a little worried if she didn't have nightmares after some of the stuff she's been through. They all didn't know what to think, especially because there were so many triggers. Then we saw neurologists, they referred us to psychologists who specialised in sleep problems. They were working well until she had a panic attack during the day. Took me 4 weeks, 10 panic attacks and god knows how many doctor's visits before we realised what the trigger was. All it was, which actually makes a lot of sense now that I've met you as her father was looking at boats. It was really weird at the time. She has mostly grown out of them, both the triggers and the nightmares as she has gotten older but sometimes we still experience them. I also test the triggers out occasionally, to see if she still reacts but I only do it when I know I have the time to deal with the aftermath if she still has a problem with it…"

I trail off the end of my story as Kennedy starts to wake up.


	11. Family Time

**A/N:  
I was reading another story this afternoon and in it the author mentioned that she was giving out teasers and talking to readers on Twitter. I thought that maybe I might give it a try. I have a twitter but I don't really use it much, so I am going to experiment for a week or two and see if there is anyone out there who would like to try this method of communication. My twitter username is the same as my FFNet username (**buffy1242**), it has been awhile since I've used it and I apologize in advance for the less than interesting back-tweets. Anyone who would like some spoilers or to ask random inane questions is most welcome.**

Also I want to say a BIG THANKYOU to all my wonderful readers. I love it when I get reviews and new follows and you are in your own way helping me write this story. I love you all!

By the time that I have gotten Kennedy to recover from her panic attack it is 5am. Normally it would take much longer but Gibbs seemed to calm her down so easily, if I wasn't so grateful I might be jealous but Kennedy has made it pretty clear that she won't be choosing between us any time soon and I know I would never ask her to and I don't think Gibbs will either.

Right now the three of us are lying in bed with Kennedy in the middle clinging to me tightly and Gibbs rubbing her back. We are about ready to get up but we are actually enjoying being lazy in bed now that the dramatics are over.

"What does everyone want for breakfast?" I ask lazily. I am trying to plan out my morning so that we can all get to NCIS on time and I am hoping that no one wants anything too hard to make because I have some cleaning to do from this morning early fun.

Kennedy looks up at me, then over at Gibbs and back at me.

"Okay Kennedy, spit it out. You know that I will make you whatever you want, just ask." I tell her, knowing that thinks I am going to say no.

Kennedy looks sheepishly down.

"It's not you that has to agree." Kennedy murmurs so quietly that I almost don't hear.

I look at her. I am confused about what she is talking about but then Kennedy gets up her nerve and talks to Gibbs.

"Can you still make those pancakes you used to make us on Sunday mornings?" She asks Gibbs quietly.

Gibbs looks shocked for a minute. When he finally recovers he just nods at her.

Kennedy smiles at him.

"I don't know if you remember," Gibbs tells Kennedy. "but there were some really weird ingredients in those pancakes. I doubt you have everything I need to make them perfect."

Kennedy laughs.

"I remember the ingredients; I just couldn't remember exactly how to make them. I have been trying to recreate them since I was 8."

"Wait!" I look between Gibbs and Kennedy. "You are responsible for those amazing pancakes Kennedy has been experimenting with for years?"

"Dads are better." Kennedy tells me.

I laugh at her. She has been saying that every time she made them for years.

"Well then, why don't you two go downstairs and try not to destroy my kitchen because I have to cook in that tonight for dinner while I clean up here. By the time I am finished we should be in sync." I tell them both.

They both laugh at me.

"Okay." Kennedy tells me getting up out of bed slowly.

Gibbs watches her closely. "Why don't you go find everything we're going to need, I'll be down in a minute."

Kennedy looks between us, smiles and nods before leaving to go downstairs.

Gibbs looks at me.

"How have you dealt with that for 8 years?" He asks me in awe.

I sigh.

"I just had too. There was nothing else that could be done about the nightmares or panic attacks. I tried for years but this is what worked so we have just stuck with it."

"But you could have just ignored it, pretended it didn't exist." He tells me.

I look at him outraged.

"YOU THINK I COULD HAVE IGNORED THAT?" I ask him incredulously. I am mad and yelling at him and he deserves. "That was a VERY mild panic attack compared to just a year ago, so imagine what they were like four or five years ago. How on earth do you expect me to just ignore the screaming and crying. Why do you think I could do that to…"

I trail off as I notice Gibbs laughing at me. I send him my best Mossad glare, which only makes him laugh harder.

"I fail to see how YOUR daughter having nightmares and panic attacks is amusing to you Agent Gibbs." I am seething and very very angry with him. The look on my face and calling him Agent Gibbs makes him stop laughing but doesn't keep the smirk on his face.

"You are such a parent." He tells me. I look at him confused so he continues. "Only a parent, a real parent would be mad that I even suggested that all this was ignorable. Only a real parent would sit through something like that just to try and make their child feel better, especially when they know that it only brings a small amount of comfort but it is better than nothing. Only a real parent would spend years trying to fix things but keep doing what they know works until they can find there fix."

He stops talking and we stand there in silence for a minute. I slowly smile at him, he has given me the biggest compliment of my entire life and with it basically permission and acceptance that I am a parent to his daughter.

"You are Kelly/Kennedy's mother, no matter what her name is. No matter where or what happened to her parents, you accepted her unconditionally and when you found out that she still had a father you accepted her judgement and didn't question it. You are an amazing person and amazing mother Ziver and I am extremely glad that my daughter grew up with you."

Gibbs walks over to me and wraps his arms around me in a hug, then leans down and whispers something in my ear.

"When we finally have this situation sorted out with DNA testing and whatever your father is trying to threaten us with, you and I are going to sit down and have that talk that we have been avoiding since you came to NCIS and I saw you that first time."

I let out a small laugh. We had been avoiding that conversation for a really long time.

Gibbs steps back, gives a quick kiss on my cheek and leaves to go find Kennedy and help her make breakfast.

As I am cleaning up in the bedroom I can hear them talking and laughing downstairs and it makes me happy. The irony of all is that I am mostly jealous of Kennedy; she thought her father was dead and now she gets to have the relationship with her father that I always wanted with mine.

When I finished cleaning I crept slowly downstairs just wanting to listen to what they were talking about and see how they interacted with each other for a moment.

"Mom feels really bad that we never knew you were alive you know?" Kennedy asked him.

"I don't see how that is her fault, she barely knew what your real name was." Gibbs tells her.

"She has a horrible relationship with Grandpa, I really have to find something else to call him but I have been calling them that since I was 9. Anyway, the thing she always wanted was a real relationship with her father especially after her mother died but he never really had the time of day for her. She sees the fact that I was taken away from my family instead of them being taken away from me as something she could have prevented."

I could hear them moving about in the kitchen but they weren't talking at the moment. Gibbs was probably thinking about what Kennedy had just told him.

"What do you know about her childhood? Her history?" Gibbs asked quietly.

Kennedy gasped at him.

"You don't know much about her do you?" She asked, I could hear the shock and confusion in her voice.

"Not really. We didn't talk much about our personal lives in Doha and despite Tony's trying we haven't gotten much out of her since she has been working with us."

"Oh." Kennedy said. "Mom doesn't like to talk much about her childhood. Her Mom died when she was 15, and Aunt Tali died about 2 years before I arrived. Mom has lots of pictures of her if you look closely but Grandpa hates having them around so she doesn't put them too out in the open. You'll find them in random draws all the time. In this house you have about a 50/50 chance of finding either a gun or photo of Uncle Ari or Aunt Tali when you open a draw." Kennedy laughs a little. "Losing Aunt Tali was the hardest thing that ever happened to Mom, it was the one thing she could never get over. Mom really needs to move on, but she doesn't know how just like I could never move on from losing my parents Mom can't get over losing Tali."

I can hear movement that indicates that Gibbs is hugging Kennedy. Then they start to speak again.

"Don't take this the wrong way, because I think it's great the way it is but from the outside you look like you got over your mother's death okay. It is obviously something you think about, you don't seem to let it affect you too much."

I hear Kennedy chuckle. It is a question she gets a lot when they hear her story. How could she just forget the mother who loved and raised her for 8 years just because she died. How could she so easily accept me?

"I didn't accept Mom and my Mom until I was about 12. That was when she was my Mom and nothing else. When I was 10 Mom turned 21 and I wanted to give her a present that meant a lot to her. I woke her up that morning which you should know is just about impossible to do because she wakes up SO early. I gave her a birthday card and whispered 'Happy Birthday Ima' before going to make her breakfast. Ima means more to her than calling her Mom does, but Mom means more to me than Ima. Eventually it just turned into Mom, sometimes when she's upset I'll call her Ima and after a nightmare or panic attack I usually call her Mommy but that's not really because of this that started because all I dreamed about was the call accident and I just wanted my Mommy and she became that person eventually. She is my Mom, and I refer to her as my Mom. Shannon is my mother, she will always be my mother and Mom and I try to keep that slightly separate because she doesn't want me to forget my mother."

I can hear Kennedy sniffling. She doesn't usually explain that much to everyone but Gibbs is her father and he has every right to know about our backstory.

"Did she ever try to give you a new Dad?" I hear Gibbs' voice in neutral mode. He was fishing for information now.

Kennedy laughs at him, knowing exactly what he is doing.

I peek around the corner on the stairs and see where they are standing in the kitchen, perfect position for me to sneak up on Gibbs like he does Tony. If I am lucky it will work. I quietly creep forward and Kennedy smiles when she sees me, going out of her way to make sure Gibbs stays where he is.

"As far as I know the only guy she has been interested in in the last 8 years has been the guy from Doha, who turned out to be you."

Gibbs gave a small chuckle.

"You know you could have asked me that question." I tell Gibbs from right behind him. I watch him stiffen and turn around slowly to look at me. "I would have told you and you wouldn't have needed to fish for information from my daughter."

Gibbs is blushing, actually red cheeks and it is taking all my Mossad training to not laugh at him. Kennedy doesn't even try to hide it and is about ready to roll on the floor laughing.

Gibbs tilts his head at me.

"How come you know all the idioms at home, but you don't at work?" he asks me.

"You are deflecting the issue here, but to answer your question…" I pointed to Kennedy. "American daughter, and I like baiting Tony. Can be good for a laugh occasionally."

Gibbs nods at me. "Good point."

Gibbs takes the last of the pancakes to the table and Kennedy has set all the ingredients out just the way she likes everything.

"Don't think this means that I will forget that I made you blush in the exact same way you tease Tony." I told him as we sit down to breakfast.

After getting my pancakes ready just the way I like them I take a bite and am very happy.

"These are amazing!" I exclaim as soon as I can talk again. "You can defiantly keep him Kennedy, and we are having pancakes more often."

Both Kennedy and Gibbs laugh at me.


	12. Labby, and a stuttering DiNozzo

**A/N: I was going to write something super important and useful in this author's note, but I totally forgot what I was going to write. Oh well, maybe I'll remember for the next chapter.  
Remeber, if anyone wants to talk to me on twitter about this or any of my other stories you are more than welcome. (**buffy1242**)  
Just a thank you to everyone who is reading this. I love you all. Your reviews, faves and follows are all appreciated and I am grateful to you all.  
P.S. To anyone who doesn't know what Noro Virus is (or Vomiting bug as it is often known as), it is basically a 24hr stomach bug, and totally awful and yes you can get it back to back. I once had it 5 times in a row. It really was not fun.**

Gibbs and I walk into the Bullpen with Kennedy on our tails. We both put our stuff where it belongs and walk out towards the elevator to take a DNA test with Abby. I can hear Tony spluttering behind me at the way we walked in and out but I can't be bothered dealing with that at the moment, I will have to deal with that tonight.

Kennedy grabs my hand as we get out of the elevator and walk to Abby's lab. I flash her a reassuring smile and squeeze her hand.

"Abs?" Gibbs calls out when we arrive.

"Gibbs?" Abby pokes her head out of her office. "What are you doing down here?" Abby asks slightly confused until she comes out towards us and sees Kennedy and I as well. "Oh right. I thought you would do this later, but I have the stuff ready."

Abby turns around and moves towards her office again when Gibbs calls her back.

"You want this?" Gibbs asks her holing out a Caf-Pow.

"Thanks Gibbs" Abby tells him while going back for the equipment she was before.

"Mom?" Kennedy asks me quietly as Abby gets ready.

"Yeah?"

"What is that drink?"

I can't help myself, I laugh. Hard.

Gibbs and Abby look at me. Neither one used to seeing me laugh so freely. Then Gibbs looks at Kennedy, eyebrows raised asking the silent question.

"I just asked her what that was." Kennedy explained pointing towards Abby's Caf-Pow.

"It's a caffeine drink. Do you want some?" Abby asks while Gibbs gives a little chuckle and I try to compose myself.

"NO!" Gibbs and I shout at the same time.

We both look at each other and then at Kennedy and Abby who are looking a little shocked.

"I guess I don't want any." Kennedy tells Abby.

Kennedy then turned to Gibbs. "I know why Mom said no, but why did you?"

Gibbs looked at her like she was crazy. "Because you are 16."

I snorted. Like that would stop her from doing anything.

"Why'd you say no, Ziva?" Abby asks me, she doesn't understand my decision.

"Because those keep her awake for days and I am NOT going through that again." I tell Abby vehemently.

"You let her drink one of those?" Gibbs asks me, unimpressed.

"Second sleep psychologist suggested keeping her up for a few days and then letting her crash. Worst holiday EVER! And that includes the trip to Paris with the back to back noro virus."

"Noro virus?" Gibbs asks at the same time Kennedy smiles and comments. "I liked that Paris trip. It was just us."

"Vomiting bug." Abby and I answer Gibbs.

"Oh." Gibbs comments.

"Okay everyone. Are you ready?" Abby asks having gotten everything she would need for cheek swaps.

"Yep. Let's do this Abs." Gibbs tells Abby as he moves to stand in front of her.

"Open up." Abby commands Gibbs.

Once they are finished Abby gets the other swab.

"Next patient please." Abby tells Kennedy.

Kennedy grips my hand again and I walk up to Abby next to her. Kennedy hates medical testing, and I completely understand why.

It is over in a few seconds and I can tell she is immediately relieved.

"How long will it take, Abs?" Gibbs asks just before we start to leave.

"If we are lucky by dinner tonight, you know the one where you promised to explain all this. Otherwise you will have to wait till tomorrow morning."

"By tonight Abs." Gibbs tells Abby as we turn to leave.

"Can't rush the science, Gibbs" Abby calls after him as we leave.

When we get to the door I turn around and look at Abby.

"Thank you Abby. You don't know what this will mean to us." I tell Abby and then leave quickly following Gibbs and Kennedy.

* * *

When we are in the elevator Gibbs pushes the emergency stop lever and looks towards Kennedy and me.

"What are we going to do with Kennedy today and what are you going to do for dinner tonight?" Gibbs asks me.

I look thoughtful, and then Kennedy talks.

"I could go home and make dinner. It's not like I'm going to school today anyway."

Gibbs and I look at each other.

"She needs to have someone with her at all times, preferably you. My father won't want to fight you, he will be happy to fight me."

"McGee can take her shopping and home for dinner. He is capable and he won't ask annoying questions like DiNozzo would. We are going to have to deal with the school situation soon though."

I think it over and look at Kennedy who looks excited at the prospect of spending an afternoon cooking for the team.

"That will work, but that also leaves us with DiNozzo. As for school, I can hire private tutors. She only has like 3 months left of senior year and already has her choice of colleges."

"YOU DO?" Gibbs asks looking shocked. "I thought you were supposed to be in Sophomore year this year?"

"I skipped a couple of grades." Kennedy tells him nonchalantly.

"She is a genius Gibbs. She makes McGee and Abby together look like, well you when it comes to computers."

Gibbs smiles. "Those things are annoying."

Kennedy and I smile.

* * *

When we get to the Bullpen Gibbs sits down in his desk and I sit down in mine. Kennedy is standing between our desks look at Tony and McGee who are both looking at her.

"Which one of you is McGee?" Kennedy asks the team.

Gibbs, Tony and I all point towards McGee and he lets out a small squeak of 'Me'.

I see Kennedy smile and grab a spare chair from behind our desks to sit with McGee.

"Mom says you're good with computers?" Kennedy asks him.

"I am." McGee eyes her curiously.

"Mom also says you went to MIT?"

"I did." McGee answers again.

"What is there Computer Science department like? I got accepted there for the fall and I'm not sure if I want to go." Kennedy tells him.

"Really? It is an amazing department, amazing school. I was only there 2 years, just to get my master's degree but it was amazing. Where else were you accepted?"

Kennedy looks hopeful.

"Everywhere I applied. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford. I applied to like 20 schools and I didn't get a rejection letter."

"Wow." Tony, Gibbs and McGee all stared at her in awe.

"I can show you everything when I get home tonight. Maybe you can give me some advice that no one else has thought of yet."

"I can do that." Tony butted in. "Go somewhere that has really good fraternity and sorority houses. Most important thing about college."

Gibbs and I glared at Tony, McGee shook his head while Kennedy got out of her seat and stalked towards him.

"Mom says most people in this office are afraid of her because she can kill someone six different ways with a paperclip." I saw Tony gulp and I tried not to laugh. "You should know that my Mom taught me everything I know and I was a fast learner. I am one of the most deadliest people on the planet, second only to my Mom. You should remember that before you say stupid comments about how the only thing to do in college is party."

"S… S… So… Sorry." Tony stuttered at Kennedy.

Gibbs and I laughed at his scared look while Kennedy walked back to McGee.

"Ideally I would like to stay near DC but I can deal if going away gets me a better degree or program." Kennedy tells McGee.

"Of course." McGee was smiling at Kennedy and I thought it was kinda funny the way she was happy to talk to her. "If you won't mind me asking, why do you want to stay near DC?"

Kennedy looked at him, then at me and back at him.

"I want to stay near my Mom. The nightmares and panic attacks are easier to deal with if she is there."

Gibbs looked at me and gave me a look that basically said 'This is why you are a good Mom.'

"What… What… What about you and… Gibbs?" McGee asks, nervous that he is going to get the same treatment as Tony.

"Once he and Mom get over this 'if we don't talk about it and it goes away' thing they have about their relationship then they will have each other and I won't have to worry about either of them but they will both always worry about me." Kennedy tells McGee.

McGee and Tony look over at Gibbs and I, while we stare open mouthed at Kennedy.

"Thank you for sharing that, Kenn." I mutter. I don't think she can hear me but from the nod from Gibbs I am sure he can.

Kennedy laughs at everyone look.

"That's enough with the talking." Gibbs commands us. "You all have work to do. McGee, you are on protective detail for… Kennedy this afternoon until Ziva gets home tonight from about 2pm. You are going grocery shopping and then will be cooking at Ziva's. She gets hurt and I shoot you, understand me?"

"Yes Boss." McGee answers while Kennedy sniggers.

"By the way, Dad." Kennedy tells him while walking over to him. "You calling me Kennedy sounds weird." She gives him a kiss on the cheek while she walks past him to my desk to pick up her school work on her way to spending the day in Jenny's office.

"Sorry Kelly." He calls out after her. She sniggers at him

"Have fun." I tell her as she walks up stairs.


	13. Cue the Frying Pan

**I wasn't going to update this this soon, but I just wrote the most AMAZING chapter (that comes after this) and I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY want to upload it soon, but I have to wait until I have a chapter that comes after it so in an effort to force myself to write more I am uploading this chapter now and only having one pre-written chapter on my computer.  
I promise all you readers, you are going to want to read the next chapter. It is amazing! I was crying while I was writing it, and you can so see why. I have to get up early tomorrow, so maybe if I can actually write another chapter then it will be up this time tomorrow. I'm almost tempted to upload it now, but no... I will retain the tiny bit of patience I have and wait. Delayed gratification is good... right? **

I spent most the day working and wasn't looking forward to Tony trying to interrogate Gibbs and I as soon as we had any real alone time with him. Kennedy came down from Jenny's office about 1.30 to eat lunch with us. Tony kept making remarks to annoy her, I ignored him and Kennedy glared at him which sometimes made him shut up. She left with McGee about 2pm so that they could go shopping and prepare for the dinner tonight. I was looking forward to it but I was also not in a lot of ways. I wanted the team to know my family, my daughter and what my relationship or lack thereof was with Gibbs but I also wanted to keep all this to myself until I knew all the answers and explanations.

At 5pm with no case Gibbs told Tony to go home and get ready for dinner tonight with us at my place. I had to wait for Gibbs to leave as we had all driven here in his car. He looked over at me and nodded to me telling me that we would be leaving soon, before picking up the phone to remind Ducky and Abby about the dinner tonight. I was never more grateful that we didn't have a case today.

We walked slowly down to his car together and when we got in he mentioned having to go via his place on the way home.

"I just need to pick up a few things and make sure everything is alright." He told me.

"You should pack a bag." I tell him carefully.

We haven't discussed anything about this situation but I know that he wouldn't be leaving Kennedy for a night and I could use his help making sure that my father didn't take her away from me.

"Are you sure?" He looks at me quizzically.

"Of course." I smile at him.

He smiles back and we just stand there looking at each other for a minute.

"Do you want to invite anyone to the dinner tonight? There will be lots of food knowing Kennedy and it would be easier to tell this story once instead of like a million times."

Gibbs just looks at me.

"Maybe your friend Scott that you mentioned last night?" I asked carefully.

I didn't want him to do anything that he wasn't comfortable with but I also didn't want Kennedy to have to tell this story over and over again. I could barely take the nightmares and panic attacks anymore, let alone what they were doing to Kennedy.

"Do you think I should? Isn't that like rubbing salt in the wound?" he asks.

"No." I tell him. "It's not like you are saying I got my daughter back, you didn't. It's more that you are including him in a conversation that the main subject is what bonded your friendship."

Gibbs goes upstairs to pack up some stuff and call his friend, while I take a look around. I vaguely remember what this place was like when I was here before but I was more focused on the task that I had to complete than anything else that night. The house was defiantly a man's house but there had obviously been woman living here from time to time and some of their touches had remained. The pots and pans in the kitchen, while the fridge retained nothing but beer. The fact that the walls were painted calm colours while the basement still looked like it had its original wallpaper on it.

After about 10 minutes of snooping around Gibbs came back downstairs.

"I called Scott, he and his fiancé are coming for dinner. He told me he was going to call me in a couple of days and tell me about the wedding."

"That's great." I tell him as we get ready to go back to my place.

The drive to my place was thankfully short. We arrived well before the time that we had told everyone else to come, they were not due yet for another 2 hours at least, but I knew Kennedy would be running around the kitchen like a headless chicken trying to make everything perfect. She loved to cook and tonight was going to be her in her element.

"You here, Kennedy?" I ask when I walk through the door.

"Kitchen, Mom." Is the only response I get.

Gibbs and I share a look and walk to the kitchen. Kennedy has already started getting everything ready for tonight, and the whole kitchen backs up whatever assumption you can make about dinner. Everything is everywhere. I laugh a little, both at the mess that I am used to and Gibbs' reaction to it.

"What are we having tonight?" I ask laughing.

"I was thinking American themed just because I can." Kennedy tells me.

I look around.

"Where'd you stash McGee's body?" I ask her knowing that the only way she would have been able to be out of McGee's sight after the threat that Gibbs had given him earlier was if she had distracted him one way or another.

"He saw my computer project I did last year. He was salivating so I just left him too it, I doubt he even noticed I left the room. I guess he is still in my room." She told me while going back to focusing on her cooking.

Gibbs growled behind me.

"Relax." I told him. "McGee would have noticed if something had gone wrong in the house and Kennedy can take care of herself against anyone, even my father. She was perfectly safe. The only reason we have protective detail on her is so she doesn't get put in jail for killing someone."

Gibbs glared at me. I laughed.

"Still not scarier than hers." I tell him walking away upstairs to find McGee.

I walk into Kennedy's bedroom and notice McGee immediately. He is sitting at her desk with one of her laptops, one of his and all her research from her project last year. He is also muttering something every now and then but I cannot understand what he is saying.

"Gibbs is going to kill you." I tell him calmly as I sit down on Kennedy's bed and watch him react.

"Huh? Ziva? What are you doing here? I thought you were staying in the office until dinner." McGee looks up at me confused.

"I did." I tell him smirking. I watch make the connection.

"Oh crap. Gibbs is going to kill me." He says looking panicked.

"Don't worry about it. I talked him out of that for the moment, but if you are going to do that every time you have protective detail on Kennedy then you will be replaced. Why didn't you bring all this downstairs?"

"I thought I had only been here like 10 minutes. I'm sorry Ziva." He tells me sincerely.

I smile at him. McGee is a good and kind person and a wonderful agent, he just needs to get his head out of the computer.

"It's okay, really. You are only here to alert us of my father's presence when he makes it known. You would have noticed, Kennedy would have made sure of it. Plus the fact that she trusted you with her computer speaks volumes. I'm barely allowed to use it, and I bought it for her."

He smiles at me.

"I guess I should go downstairs then."

"You can stay here if you want. Gibbs is down there, it's good for them to have a little time together every now and then and you and I both know you would much rather finish whatever you were doing. Did you talk to her about college?"

I really want Kennedy to decide on a college soon, as much as abhor the idea of her going away especially at 16 I know that it is for the best.

"Yeah, a little. I think she is basically tossing up between Georgetown and MIT. Georgetown because it is in DC and close to you and MIT for all the obvious reasons. I told her that ultimately the decision is hers but she should focus on what the most important factor is of the choice, if it is for the degree then obviously she should go MIT but if it is for another reason then maybe she should consider a school that satisfies that issue."

"Thank you McGee." I tell him.

I leave McGee to the computers and go change into something a little more comfortable for dinner. I also go over in my head what I am going to tell everyone in the team. I am so busy with my thoughts that I don't notice Gibbs walk up into my room, put his bag down behind me and put his arms around me.

"Hi." I say, leaning into his embrace.

"Hi." He says back. "What are you planning on telling them?"

I can always count on Gibbs to be worrying about the same thing I am.

"I don't know. They know a little about what's going on, and they know about Doha so I am going to have to tell them that. Jenny's going to be really mad when she hears the full story about that." I tell him.

"Why?" He asks confused.

"When Jenny was injured in Cairo and we were swapping guy stories we were always talking about you, not that we knew it. You were her guy from Paris and my guy from Doha, even when we told the less than pleasant stories we both somehow knew the guy were talking about was the one guy were head over heels for. It's bad enough that we were talking about the same guy, but add on everything about Kennedy and whatever we are doing now and this isn't going to be pleasant for her."

"We'll make it work." He tells me before kissing my temple and walking away to get everything ready.

I mentally prepared myself for the dinner that was going to make or break my relationship with my teammates.


	14. Jumping From the Frying Pan

**O.M.G! This chapter... there are no words... (That's a bad thing coming from a writer... Oops.)  
****While this has for all intents and purposes been a planned progression from the beginning, it actually took me by surprise as I was writing it how easily it fit in. I wrote this chapter yesterday, actually I finished it about this time yesterday and I REALLY wanted to upload it AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! It was awesome and amazing and I know that I still haven't done some of the things you have all been waiting for but I have delt with something... Something big...  
****Okay, I'm going to stop writing now or else I am going to give away major spoilers.  
I love all you readers, I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.  
P.S After this update will go back to being once a week.**

I am still upstairs trying to convince myself to go downstairs when I hear the doorbell ring. I know that either Kennedy or Gibbs were downstairs and able to open the door. As soon as the door was opened it was obvious who it was that was half an hour early by the sheer volume of voice alone.

"Gibbs! Gibbs! Gibbs!" Abby's voice carried up all the way from downstairs, and the other side of the house. Abby would have done anything to please Gibbs so I knew that she wouldn't have come until the DNA test results had been done, I guess this was my moment to go downstairs.

I walked into the hallway and meet McGee coming out of Kennedy's room. It seems that Abby's voice has brought him out of his computer induced stupor. I smile at him and he walks downstairs behind me. My mind is going at 100 miles an hour thinking about what could go wrong with whatever answer the DNA test gave us.

If the test was negative, I wasn't sure what was going to happen. If Gibbs and I wanted, I'm sure we could convince Abby to fake a test because if the test was negative my father was defiantly not going to allow my daughter to live in the United States of America with me any longer. My choice was going to be between Kennedy and NCIS. It was not a choice I was looking forward to making, because everyone including my father would know instantly that I would choose my daughter and no one in NCIS could fault me for that decision but my father would make my life hell in Mossad after what had just happened in the last 2 days. If the test was negative, life as I knew it was going to be over very quickly for both Kennedy and I.

However, the test being positive was not going to be an instant happy ending either. That route was going to require paperwork that would take a little while to complete through proper channels, also finding a way of proving that Kennedy was still alive as Kelly and 24 hour surveillance of Kennedy, Gibbs and I because of threats from my father and Mossad. Not to mention what this is going to do to Kennedy in terms of nightmares and panic attacks, also I had to wonder what this would do to Gibbs as well. Either way this test would bring us answers, but also more questions and problems.

Gibbs and Abby had been talking as I made my way downstairs to them, but I hadn't been listening to the conversation at all. I could tell by the look on Gibbs' face that Abby hadn't told him the test results, I wasn't sure whether I was happy they had waited for me or annoyed that Abby was keeping us in suspense. I entered the room at the same time Kennedy came out from the kitchen. She took one look at Gibbs, Abby, McGee and I and knew instantly what was going on. The girl was defiantly observant; I had to give her that. I wondered in the back of my mind whether that was a learned trait from me or something that was imbedded in her DNA from Gibbs. It really could be either or.

"Tim?" Kennedy asked. "Can you go and make sure none of the food burns? It'll only be for a minute."

McGee looked at all of us and nodded while quietly making his way to the kitchen. I walked over to stand next to Gibbs in front of Abby, who was only standing far enough in front of the front door to close it. I wasn't in the mood to be hospitable, and neither were Gibbs or Kennedy. We wanted answers. Gibbs put his arm around my shoulders and I put mine around his back. Kennedy came and stood in front of us directly in the middle. Both Gibbs and I put our other hands on her shoulders.

Abby gave a tight smile at us as we looked on hopefully at her.

"It's official." Abby told us as we drew a shaky breath in hope. "Kennedy David is biologically related to Leroy Jethro Gibbs. I don't have a test that can confirm or deny whether you're Kelly Gibbs, but I can tell you that Gibbs is the father of this girl standing in front of us."

It took a moment for the news to sink in, and then Kennedy turned around and looked at us right before putting her arms around both of us and hugging us tightly. I couldn't help but laugh, she was so happy. This was something that she had wanted for so long, something that we had all thought wasn't possible but yet here it was it had happened. Kennedy had gotten her father back. I was so happy for her. I looked over at Gibbs and there were tears falling down his cheeks, he lifted his head and looked back at me smiling. It was obvious to anyone watching, and I infinitely hoped in that moment that the only people watching were Abby and possibly McGee, that this was something Gibbs was extremely happy about. He had his daughter back, Kennedy had her father back. They had what they had wanted for so long.

Kennedy and Gibbs both let go of me and latched onto each other. It was something they both needed and I was not put out by not being included, I looked over to where Abby had been standing and found that she had disappeared, but I could hear her talking to McGee in the Kitchen. I leaned up to Gibbs' cheek and pressed a quick kiss and whispered 'I'll be in the kitchen' in his ear, before going off to find Abby and McGee.

The Kitchen looked like a bomb had exploded in half of it. This was Kennedy's favourite method of cooking, make the biggest mess possible and clean up well while everything is cooking. From the looks of it she had only done half the cleaning. McGee was trying to figure out what to do with the food, at least that is what I took from the puzzled look on his face. Abby face had a mixture of pride, happiness and fear I could have laughed at her expression, she was happy that she had done a good job for Gibbs but was wondering what the ramifications would be for everyone else.

I walked over to Abby as soon as I walked into the kitchen and pulled her into a hug. I knew this would mean more to her than anything I could have said, and while I was a little uncomfortable it was worth it to make the woman who had given my daughter the best news ever understand how much this meant to all of us.

"Thank you Abby." I told her I pulled away from her.

Abby looked up at me confused.

"What happens now Ziva?" She asked carefully. "She's lived with you for so long, but Gibbs is her father."

"That has yet to be decided, Abby. All we have figured out at the moment is that we have to make this official on paper. The way I see it, and I have told both Kennedy and Gibbs this is that Kennedy is 16 years old, these decisions are her choice we will both do what she wants."

Abby smiled at me. Obviously I had given her the right answer.

"What is going on between you and Gibbs anyway?" Abby asked slyly.

I saw McGee in the corner of my eye come to a complete halt on whatever he was doing, I almost laughed. Unlike McGee I had been expecting this question since Abby had walked into the house.

"I will be telling the story at dinner tonight Abby." I tell her. "Suffice to say that at the moment, that we are haven't actually talked about it but it is a topic we do need to discuss soon."

Abby looks slightly disappointed, and McGee breathes out a sigh of relief. Again I could have laughed at McGee if he didn't immediately tense up at noticing the cooking wasn't going exactly as it should be.

I walked out of the kitchen to find Gibbs and Kennedy and saw them standing where they had been before just looking at each other, taking in everything that had changed and everything that they had missed. It was amusing to think that while they had suspected and to some extent known about this for over 24 hours now they both hadn't thought that it could be real, could be possible until now with definitive proof.

I walked up to them and put my hand flat on Gibbs' back between his collarbone.

"Kenn, you really need to deal with the food. McGee is very much out of his depth, and if we want to eat what you've made you may want to go save it. We can order in if you want to stay here though." I tell her quietly, not knowing what she is in the mood for at the moment. Family members returning from the grave is a new situation for Kennedy and I.

"Oh. The food." Kennedy exclaims before pressing a quick kiss to Gibbs' cheek and running off into the kitchen.

Gibbs looks over at me. "Well, she is defiantly a teenage. Running off as soon as something more fun comes along." He laughs at me.

"You won't be saying that when you eat her cooking. Some of those dishes are from my mother's recipes, some are from friends we have met while travelling and some are things that I think she remembers from when she was with you. It's going to be a wonderful dinner." I laugh at him.

Gibbs leans forward and kisses me.

"What was that for?" I asked.

"For letting her combine her 2 lives together so well, for making her happy, for taking care of her and for letting me be a part of her life again. All things you never HAD to do, but you did them anyway. That is why I love you Ziva David."

My laughter stopped immediately.

"You still love me?" I asked in a small voice.

"I told you that when we left Doha, I told you that a lot when we left Doha. I know we need to talk about this properly but I want my relationship with you back, I want the real thing with you. I want the house in the suburbs with the white picket fence, the dog and the 2.5 kids with you Ziva. I want it all back Ziva."

I looked at Gibbs, but I could no longer see him clearly through the tears.

"Really?" I had to make sure this was real, I had to make sure that he really and truly meant what he had just told me.

"I missed you so much Ziva." He told me, kissing me again.

Gibbs backs away slightly and starts digging in his pockets, eventually he comes up with a small jewellery box. He holds it up to show me with a triumphant smile.

"This contains Shannon's engagement and wedding rings. I was going to give them to Kelly tonight; they are pretty much the only thing I ever got back from the accident. I hid them in the back of a draw and basically forgot about them till this afternoon. I want both these rings to go to Kells, and I'm sure you understand why I feel that way but I was hoping that for tonight and tomorrow you would accept this as placeholder." He tells me as he gets down on one knee.

My eyes widen. "Gibbs, no." I tell him.

I see the hurt look in his eyes and immediately understand that he misunderstood what I was trying to say.

"I cannot wear Shannon's ring, I couldn't do that to you or Kennedy. That ring was hers, and it should always be hers."

He smiles softly at me. "For tonight, you can accept the placeholder." He tells me firmly.

From the sceptical look I give him he realises that I am not convinced.

"It's only for tonight Mom." Kennedy tells me from behind me. I turn to look at her quickly. "I don't think she would mind. Personally I like to think that she would love you, and it's not like you are trying to replace her. You spent years as my Mom trying not to replace her, making sure that I remembered that I had a mother. She would be proud of you for that." Kennedy tells me quietly. "Take the ring tonight Mom, and tomorrow we go ring shopping."

I laugh a little at her, any excuse to go shopping.

I turn and give a little nod to Gibbs to continue. I know he wants to do this properly.

"Ziva David, will you marry me?" He asks me.

I can hear Abby and McGee draw a quick quiet breath behind me but I don't acknowledge their presence.

"Yes." I tell him, pulling him up to standing upright before launching myself at him and wrapping my arms around him.

I can hear Kennedy laughing and Abby cheering happily for us. I'm sure McGee said congratulations in their somewhere, but I think it may have been drowned out by Abby not that anyone is surprised.

Our somewhat impromptu celebration is interrupted by the doorbell ringing again but I wasn't paying attention to it, only to the perfect man who had just asked me to marry him. I only look up when I hear Kennedy talk.

"Aunt Jen! You'll never guess what happened, Dad asked Mom to marry him."

I froze instantly and so did Gibbs. We had forgotten in the wake of our happiness that Jenny was very much a character in our story.

"Ziva?" Jenny looked to me, wondering if it was true or not.

I could answer her; I was too busy wondering if our friendship was going to survive the answer to this question. I was hoping beyond hope that it would.


	15. Into the Firing Line

**A/N: So I wrote this around the time I went on that massive uploading spree last week. I didn't really think anything of it at the time but I ended up taking a mini road-trip where I had a lot of time to think and realised that there are some rather large continuity issues with this and real-life, mostly concerning Doha. I have never been to Qatar (country where Doha is located) nor have I ever been to anywhere around there so I do not know much about its customs or details but I do know there are restrictions on its alcohol sales. I do not however know what they are. I only know this because my favourite blogger lives there and she complains about it all the time. So I realised that it was slightly unrealistic for the amount of alcohol present to actually be there. However, this is FanFiction and it doesn't fit with the story as well if I try to write around it so we are going to ignore that tiny insignificant detail and pretend that what I have written about if actually realistic, capiche?  
****As always the standard plug that if you want information or spoilers go to my twitter (**buffy1242**) and I will be sure to give you some insider information.  
****Thank you to all my wonderful followers and reviews. You are amazing and I would not be continuing with this story in the same way if I did not have all of you to make sure that I don't disappoint. I love you all.**

Gibbs took step forward to defend our actions to Jenny, but I put a hand on his arm and stopped him. He turned around to look at me and I shook my head silently and motioned for him and Kennedy to go to the kitchen. Gibbs tried to stare me down but I wasn't having any of it.

"Give it up, Dad. You won't win." Kennedy told him as she grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the kitchen.

I turned all my attention on Jenny who was looking heartbroken, confused and betrayed all at once. I motioned for her to follow me and walked back upstairs to my room.

We I reached my room I sat on my bed and Jenny came to sit next to me, just like we would when we were sharing secrets in Cairo.

"I'm sorry." I tell her quietly.

We both know that I am not sorry for falling in love with Gibbs, that I am not sorry for agreeing to marry him. We both know that I am sorry that he chose me over her, that I get my happy ending with the man of my dreams while Jenny does not.

We sit there silently, both of us staring at the wall opposite my bed before Jenny breaks the silence.

"How did we not know all those years ago that he was the same man?" She asks me.

I can't help it. I laugh.

"Because we always said no names. Though in hindsight it should have been obvious, I mean how many men do you know that drink so much coffee that it practically runs through their veins?"

Jenny gives me a small smile.

"I always believed that one day, we would work through whatever the problem was in Paris and it would all be wonderful. I know that is an unrealistic expectation with Jethro, but it was the dream I had."

"I had the same dream with him, and I can tell you now we both are not going to be getting that. He can give an 'ever after' but living with Gibbs has got to be anything but happy 24/7."

Jenny laughs at me again.

"I suppose you have to be right about that." She tells me. "How did you meet anyway? You never told me that story, it was the one you refused to tell."

I laughed. I always did when I thought of this story.

_*FLASHBACK*  
I slammed my empty glass back on the hotel bar. I was angry, fuming that my father had thought it necessary to send me away somewhere to recuperate after my last job when all I wanted to do was go home to my daughter. _

_The sound of the glass on wood bought the bar tender attention to me. _

"_I don't advise you to break the glass." He told me with a smile. "Picking glass out of your clothes and hair is messy."_

_For a moment the anger dissipated, then I realised that he was hitting on me or at least trying to. I was not impressed._

"_Another." I tell him, it was after all only my second drink I planned on drinking a lot more that night but most of that would be done in sanctuary of my hotel room where I could wallow on my own over a job that had gone wrong in every way but one. The only consolation was that none of the Mossad operatives involved had been killed. A small prize, but one nonetheless._

"_Of course." The bar tender told me, giving me a quick wink._

_I hid my disgust at his blatant flirting that I was so not in the mood for only because I actually wanted to continue drinking in public for a little while. Drinking by one's self is not socially acceptable, and I wanted to at least appease my father's sense of decorum before I went and lost myself in what I wanted._

_I was staring into the glass, too busy to notice the man that came and sat next to me. When I did notice him a few minutes later he just looked at me and whispered quietly._

"_I only came and sat here because you are about the only person in this place that looks like they want to be left alone more than me, I figured it might deter some of the completely unobservant people. I can leave if you want." He told me quietly._

_I shook my head._

"_So long as you don't mind the occasional shattered glass we should be fine." I told him sincerely._

_Whoever this guy was I was completely thankful to him because for the next hour we barely talked, but we were sitting close enough to each other that people often mistook us as being together. I had calmed down somewhat until some man who had smelt like he had had more to drink in the last hour than I had had in my lifetime come up to me._

"_You wanna come dance, darling?" He asked while trying to grab my arm._

_I was feeling generous so I didn't put him on the floor immediately._

"_No." I told him pulling my arm back full force. _

"_Come on, darling. You know you want to." He made another attempt at pulling my arm so he could get me out of my seat._

_This time he got the attention of the man next to me._

"_I believe she said no." He said to the drunken guy._

_The drunken guy looked up sneeringly. "What are you, her father?"_

"_Husband." The man replied without missing a beat. "You may want to leave before I let her beat you up like she wants to."_

_I was a little shocked that this man knew I was going to beat the drunken guy into a pulp if he touched me again, but I didn't show it._

_The drunken guy looked me up and down. "She couldn't anything to me." He told us._

_Before anyone had a chance to reply I grabbed the hand that was again reaching for my arm and twisted it around in a painful vice-like grip. Well, painful for him that is._

"_You sure about that?" I asked him quietly, even as drunk as he was he seemed to sense the venom in my voice. _

_He glared at me trying to pull away from my grip, I held on a little longer._

"_As a general rule, you should anger an assassin." I told him before shoving him away from me and retaking my seat._

_The man sitting next to me looked over at me._

"_Metsada?" He asks me quietly._

"_Officially it is known as Kidon." I tell him. "Marines?" I ask him_

"_What gave it away?" He asks me laughing slightly._

"_The haircut. What gave me away?" I laugh at him._

"_The assassin comment pretty much gave it away, but the accent and the way you are alert about everything going on in here pretty much screamed Mossad."_

_I smile at him. He was observant, extremely observant. I had to give him that at least._

_He had saved me from unnecessarily killing someone, and while that man would have been no great loss to humanity the clean-up would have been messy and something that I was not willing to deal with at the moment. He deserved a small thank you at least._

"_Thank you for that." I told him quietly._

"_You would have been fine." He told me letting me know that while he knew I could have handled myself he would have been happy to come to my rescue. No one ever did that for me._

"_What are you drinking?" I ask him._

_I have a lot of alcohol in my room, being prepared to not leave the room for the week that I am forced to spend here. _

"_Bourbon." _

_I smile slightly. "I have some of that in my room if you want to join me in a setting that only contained two people drinking."_

_The man wasn't unattractive, far from it actually. It didn't matter to me how he took the invitation, just long as he took it. He was the silent type like it, he wouldn't spend time making useless small talk and that alone made him a good drinking companion. At the moment, I wasn't adverse to anything more._

_He looked me up and down. I could see the gears turning in his head. Finally he nodded his head._

"_Sure, just let me pay for these." He told me, while getting the attention of the bartender who had long ago learnt to leave us alone unless otherwise asked thankfully._

_When the bar tender walked over I didn't let the man start talking to him._

"_Put his drinks on my room." I told the bartender. _

_The bar tender nodded and walked off, I stood up and watched to see what the man would do._

_He walked over to me and put his arm around my waist, I didn't shake him off._

"_You didn't have to do that you know." He tells me. I think this must be his version of thank you._

"_True, but you are probably paying for your own room or at least drinks. I am not." I tell him. The only upside I can find to being forced to take a vacation._

"_Oh really?" He asks me as we make our way to the elevator up to my room. "And who is paying for your room and drinks?"_

_I laugh a little him. "Offically, Mossad. This is a forced vacation. Unoffically, my father. The deputy director of Mossad."_

_That was the first time I noticed tonight that anything I had told him had shocked him, though I am sure it wasn't the first time he had been shocked tonight just the first time he had been shocked enough to let it show._

"_Should I be worried about that?" He asked, his voice somewhere from cautious to playful._

"_The vacation was forced upon me, I would much rather be at home with my daughter. If this happens to show my father what I think of being forced to take a vacation then I'll take it."_

_For the second time that night he is shocked by the information I have let him have. I am too. I find myself wondering what made me mention my daughter, especially to an American._

"_Should I be asking about your daughter's father?" He asks me slowly, something in his eyes makes me think there is more to this question than just wondering if I am single or not but I decide to let it go for now._

"_He is dead." I tell him succinctly. _

_When he winces a little, I wonder a little about his backstory but decide not to ask._

"_To be fair, so is her mother." I tell him. At his confused look I elaborate. "I adopted her when she was 8 years old after my brother rescued her from an accident that killed her parents."_

_The elevator dings to my floor and I get out, while the man follows. He seems to be a little bit more on auto-pilot than he was before. I begin to wonder why he is acting like this, maybe he has lost people too._

_I get into my room and hold up the large bottle of bourbon that I have silently asking if it is acceptable. He nods and I pour him a large glass, while I break out the scotch. _

"_Sorry." He says to me as I sit down next to him on the bed._

"_Apologising is a sign of weakness." I tell him, parroting what my father keeps telling me. According to him everything is a sign of weakness._

_He eyes snap towards me._

"_How did you know that?" He asks quietly._

_At my confused look, he elaborates._

"_That is one of my personal rules, rule 6 in fact. How did you know that?"_

"_My father says it all the time, though it is not just contained to apologies."_

"_Oh." He looks back down to the floor. "What's your name?" _

_I am taken aback by the question. I can't answer for a minute so he continues speaking._

"_You don't have to give me your real name, just a name. Something so that I know what to call you."_

_I go over my reasoning in my head. I could have given him any name, even the name of my daughter but I decide not to. Eventually I decide to give him my real name._

"_Ziva." I tell him quietly._

_He looks up at me._

"_That's your real name." It is not a question but a statement. I wonder how he knows that but I have given up trying to figure out._

"_Yes." I tell him._

"_Jethro." He tells me about himself. I tilt my head to the side._

"_That is not your real name, but it is the name most people know you as." I tell him. Again it is not a question, but a statement._

_He nods at me, staring into my eyes. I notice that he has the most beautiful blue eyes that I have ever seen._

_We sit there staring at each other for a minute._

"_Unless you have no other objections, I am going to kiss you now."_

_I let out a small laugh._

"_You better do more than kiss me, Jethro." I tell him as I watch him lean further and further towards me._

"_Oh, I'm planning to." He tells me as his lips hit mine._

_Maybe this vacation wasn't such a bad idea afterall._

_*END FLASHBACK*_

"Wow." Jenny just breathed at the end of the story.

I had been too caught up in the memory and Jenny had been too caught up in the story, so both of us jumped when we heard Kennedy speak.

"Is that really how you met Dad, Mom?" She asked me.

I nodded, smiling lightly while playing with the ring that still didn't feel right on my finger. It wasn't that it didn't feel right being Gibbs' fiancé, it was that I was wearing Shannon's ring. The ring that should have been in Kennedy's position.

"I keep thinking about how happy you were when you came back from that vacation. I also wondered what exactly had happened, but you were also so sad when you thought about it. I understand now, Mom." Kennedy told me as she came over to me and hugged me.

I laughed a little. Then I remembered the dinner party.

"Shouldn't you be downstairs getting everything ready?" I ask her.

"Everything is ready and waiting. Everyone is also here apart from Dad's friends that he said he invited this afternoon."

I nodded and pushing Kennedy slightly out of the room, only because I knew she was a perfectionist.

When she was gone Jenny turned to me.

"Who did Jethro invite?" She asks me.

"A friend who knew what happened to Shannon and Kelly because basically the same thing happened to him. He didn't want him to find out from anyone but him."

Jenny just nodded. Some things were always best to get out into the open.

We made our way downstairs and heard the doorbell just as we reached the bottom floor. It looked our dinner party was going to finally start the inquisition part of the evening.


	16. It's a Small Small World Out There

**To the guest reviewer that said they didn't like my fic because I wasn't writing Tony like Cannon. Please note that I am not really writing any of the characters like cannon. This is FICTION, therefore you cannot hate it because it is not like cannon, it was specifically created to not be like cannon. Also, I don't really like Tony... He annoys me SO MUCH. Anything I can do in a fic to annoy him makes me feel just a little bit better about watching him on the series.**

**Also, thank you to all my wonderful reviewers. You have made me want to break through this rather large moment of writers block that I seem to be having on this story. I am starting to think that I have too many things going through my head. Oops. **

**As always, if you want to ask questions or see the occasional spoiler you are welcome to contact me on Twitter. (**buffy1242**) I don't think I will be able to update again any time soon thanks to Christmas and everything that comes with this time of year. It is my Dads birthday a week after Christmas and Mine a week after that, so it is a rather busy time of year.**

**I am sorry for how long it has been since I last updated, I just did not know how I wanted to get the characters to their next problem. Everything else in this story has written itself and yet I cannot seem to get a good bridging chapter where I want to get some information out. GAHH! I am going to now go run away and hide. See you all later.**

I heard Kennedy open the door and was surprised by what she said next. I saw Gibbs in the kitchen and could see he was surprised too.

"Uncle Scotty!" She screamed as she threw herself towards him.

Gibbs and I rushed into the entranceway from 2 different directions and looked at the scene unveiling in front of us.

Scott looked up from Kennedy's iron hug and nodded towards us. "Jethro, Ziva." He greeted us.

I looked at Gibbs and he looked at me.

"You know him?" Gibbs and I asked each other at the same time. I could hear Tony sniggering in the background, but I wasn't going to acknowledge it.

"Yes." We replied at the same time. Then again at the same time. "How do you know him?"

Kennedy and Scott started laughing at us.

I turned to glare at them. Then turned back to Gibbs. "This is your friend Scott that you invited for tonight's dinner?"

Gibbs nods.

"_Of course it is,_" I mutter in Hebrew. "_Because we couldn't have people that we might actually have to introduce to each other._"

Scott laughs at me.

"Do I want to know the story behind that comment, Zi?"

Kennedy looks at him, and shakes her head.

"The universe hates me." I tell Scott.

Scott laughs at me. "I thought it always did Zi. Isn't that why we are friends?"

"Okay, exactly how do you two know each other?" Gibbs asks us forcefully.

Scott and I share a look.

"Zi and I worked an Op in Helsinki about, oh what is it Zi 3 years ago?" Scott told Gibbs.

"Three and a half." I tell Gibbs. "The only Op I ever had to take Kennedy on. It was a long term undercover assignment, and needed to be done by a family. No one else either had children or was willing to subject them to the operation, which I completely understand but of course Kenn had the training to take care of herself."

Gibbs is staring at me, trying to understand what I am telling him. While Scott looks between me and Gibbs.

"How do you know each other?" He asks us.

The look Gibbs gives out somewhat resembles a fish out of water, if he wasn't making this situation so tense then I would have laughed at him.

"Guy from Doha." I point towards Gibbs with my left hand, and the ring catches the light which Scott immediately notices.

"Are you engaged?" Scott asks us immediately.

I nod. Scott looks a little closer at the ring.

"I recognise that ring." He murmurs to us.

"It was Shannon's." Gibbs tells him quietly.

Scott's head snaps towards Gibbs instantly, I can see the anger in his eyes.

"Are you serious?" He asks Gibbs slowly, in that controlled angry way that is always scarier.

Gibbs looks a little taken aback by the sheer force of Scott's anger, I put my hand on Scott's shoulder to calm him. "It's okay." I tell him, "I didn't want it for that reason as well, but we are going to get another one tomorrow. This is just for show."

That pacifies him a little, but not by much.

"You still think that is alright?" Scott asks Gibbs in such a way I begin to wonder who actually would win a fight. Gibbs or the guy who looked like he could swallow the terminator whole three times over?

Gibbs doesn't get a chance to reply again because Kennedy decides now is a good time to talk.

"I said it was alright." Kennedy tells him.

Scott is instantly a little confused, but that doesn't mean his anger towards Gibbs lessens at all.

"Why would you have any say in that, Kenn?" Scott asks her.

"Because I'm Kelly." She tells him.

The reaction on Scott's face is instantaneous. The anger is replaced by full blown confusion and plain shock. He looks between Gibbs, Kennedy and I and back again many times before he finally speaks.

"Huh?" Is the only somewhat verbal noise he can make.

"The car accident that my mother and I died in, it didn't kill me it just killed her. About 10 minutes after she died, that was when Ari rescued me though it was still make to look like I died. Ari took me to Tel Aviv to Mom, and they told me my father died in combat and Mom adopted me. Then Mom moved here to work at NCIS and the other day I brought her dinner. I think you can guess the rest of what happened."

Scott is looking between all of us in a way that made me wonder if he was making himself dizzy. Then he abruptly stopped on me.

"You always said that Kenn's parents were killed in an accident." He told me, but there was a question in there somewhere.

"Yes," I deadpanned. "Because it is so much easier to explain to complete strangers that actually only her mother was killed in the accident and we actually have no idea how her father died because my family and/or Mossad won't tell me."

Scott looked a little taken aback at the harshness of my comment that I instantly felt bad for offending someone who had been a good friend.

"It came as a shock to me too that her father was still alive, and from my father's reaction I would guess that it came as a shock to him too."

Scott nodded to me, placated for the time being. I knew we would be talking in the future about this.

"What about Ari's reaction?"

Scott looked confused when everyone who was listening to the conversation drew in a sharp breath.

"You don't know?" I asked in disbelief.

"Know what?" He looked too me. "You know I never particularly liked the guy Zi, why would I know what his reaction was?"

I shared a look with Gibbs.

"He is dead." I told him.

Scott looked a little shocked for a moment.

"I'm not going to say I'm sorry he is dead, because we all know that is a lie, but I am sorry you two lost your family member." He told Kennedy and me sincerely.

Gibbs gave a small smile. "Well, at least we will know you will get along with the team."

"Why?" Scott asked hesitantly.

Gibbs shot me a small apologetic look. "You remember me telling you about an agent I worked with, Kate Todd?"

"Yeah, I heard about her death. I am sorry Gibbs."

"She was shot by Ari, basically because he could because he wanted to annoy me."

Scott snapped up to look at him. He looked between Kennedy, me and then back at Gibbs. I could see the silent question in his eyes directed to Gibb. '_Was it because of your connection to them?_' Gibbs shrugged, the only person who knew the answer to that question was dead and unable to answer the question.

We were interrupted from our staring contest by the doorbell ringing again.

"That'll probably be Jamie, she had to work tonight so we came separately."

I nod at Scott. "Get the door then."

Scott laughs at me and moves to answer the door while Gibbs puts his arm around me and I lean into his embrace, I don't think too much about Scott answering the door to his fiancé and he walks back into the centre of the room with her introducing her to us.

"Jamie, I'd like you to meet Jethro Gibbs, his fiancé and my good friend Ziva David and her… their daughter…" Scott trails off not knowing how to tell the story let along explain it to an outsider. This was a part of the evening that I was not looking forward too.

"Kennedy." Kennedy supplied to the introductions. She wasn't nearly ready enough to go by Kelly yet.

Scott nodded and turned his attention back to Jamie. "And everyone else who I do not know but is standing in the kitchen watching and listening to our conversation, this is my fiancé, Jamie."

"Hi everyone." Jamie greets us happily and we all murmur hi back to her.

Kennedy then turns to me.

"We can eat in about 5 minutes if everyone wants to take a seat at the table."

I sigh, uneasily.


End file.
